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THE 



GKEVILLE MEMOIES 



VOLUME II. 



AY-t 



LONDON: MINTED BY 

8POTTISW00DE AND CO., NE"W-STBEET SQUABE 

AND PABLIA.MENT STBEET 



The Greville Memoirs 



A JOURNAL OF THE REIGNS 

OF 

KING GEORGE IV. 
KING WILLIAM IV. 

BY THE LATE 

CHARLES C. T. GREVILLE, Esq. 

CI.EUK OV THB COUNCIL TO THOSE SOVEREIGNS 
EDITED BY 

HENEY EEEVE 

TIEGISTBAB OF THB PRIVY COUNCIL 

IN THREE VOLUME- 

VOL. II. \ 

SECOND EDITION 

LONDON 
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 

1874 

All rights reserved 



/ 7-* 



? 
CONTENTS 



OF 

THE SECOND VOLUME. 



CHAPTER XI. 

Accession of William IV. — The King's Proceedings — His Popularity — 
Funeral of George IV. — Dislike of the Duke of Cumberland — The King's 
Simplicity and Good-nature — Reviews the Guards — The First Court — 
The King in St. James's Street — Dissolution of Parliament — The King- 
dines at Apsley House — The Duke of Gloucester — The Quaker's Address — 
The Ordinances of July — The French Revolution — Brougham's Election 
for Yorkshire — Struggle in Paris — Elections adverse to i Government — 
The Duke of "Wellington on the French Revolution — Duke of Cumber- 
land resigns the Gold Stick and the Blues — George IV. 's Wardrobe — 
Fall of the Bourbons — Weakness of the Duke's Ministry — The King 
{it Windsor— The Duke of Orleans accepts the Crown of France — 
Chamber of Peers remodelled — Prince Polignac — The New Parliament 
— Virginia Water — Details of George IV.'s Illness and Death — Symptoms 
of Opposition — Brougham — Charles X. in England — Dinner in St. 
George's Hall — Lambeth — Marshal Marmont — His Conversation — 
Campaign of 1814 — The Conflict in Paris — Dinner at Lord Dudley's. 

page 1 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Belgian Revolution — The Duke of Wellington and [ Canning — The 
King's Plate — Gloomy Forebodings — Retreat of the Prince of Orange- 
Prince Talleyrand — Position of the Government — Death of Huskisson— 
His Character — The Duke of Wellington and Peel — Meeting of Parlia- 
ment—The Duke's Declaration — The King's Visit to the City aban- 
doned -Disturbances in London — Duchesse de Dino — The Cholera — 
iSouthey, Henry Taylor, John Stuart Mill — Dinner at Talleyrand's— The 



VI CONTENTS OF 

Duke of Wellington resigns — Mr. Batlmrst made Junior Clerk of the 
Council — Lord Spencer and Lord Grey sent for — Formation of Lord 
Grey's Administration — Discontent of Brougham — Brougham takes the 
Great Seal — Character of the New Ministers — Prospects of the Oppo- 
sition — Disturbances in Sussex and Hampshire — Lord Grey and Lord 
Brougham — Lord Sefton's Dinner — -The New Ministers sworn at a 
Council page 40 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Proclamation against Rioters — Appointments — Duke of Wellington in 
Hampshire — General Excitement — The Tory Party — State of Ireland — 
More Disturbances — Lord Grey's Colleagues — Election at Liverpool — 
The Black Book — The Duke of Wellington's Position and Character — 
A Council on a Capital Sentence — Brougham in the House of Lords — ■ 
The Clerks of the Council — Lord Grey and Lord Lyndhurst — The 
Chancellor of Ireland — Lord Melbourne — Duke of Richmond- — Sir James 
Graham — Lyndhurst Lord Chief Baron — Judge Allan Park — Lord 
Lyndhurst and the W 7 higs — Duke of Wellington and Polignac — The 
Xing and his Sons — Polish Revolution — Mechanics' Institute — Repeal 
of the Union — King Louis Philippe — Lord Anglesey and O'Connell— 
A Dinner at the Athenaeum — Canning and George IV. — Formation of 
Canning's Government — Negotiation with Lord Melbourne — Count 
Walewski — Croker's Boswell — State of Ireland — Brougham and Sugden 
— Arrest of O'Connell — Colonel Napier and the Trades Unions — The 
Civil List — Hunt in the House of Commons — Southey's Letter to 
Brougham on Literary Honours — The Budget — O'Connell pleads guilty 
— Achille Murat — -Weakness of the Government — Lady Jersey and Lord 
Durham — Lord Duncahnon — Ireland — Wordsworth . . .73 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Introduction of the Reform Bill — Attitude of the Opposition — Reform De- 
bates — Peel — AVilberforce and Canning — Old Sir Robert Peel — The City 
Address— Agitation for Reform — Effects of the Reform Bill — Brougham 
as Chancellor — Brougham at the Horse Guards — Miss Kemble — Vote on 
the Timber Duties — Lord Lansdowne's Opinion of the Bill — Reform 
Bill carried by one Vote — The King in Mourning — The Prince of 
Orange — Peel's Reserve — Ministers beaten — Parliament dissolved by 
the King in Person — Tumult in both Houses — Failure of the Whig- 
Ministry — The King in their Hands — The Elections — Illumination in 
the City — The Queen alarmed — Lord Lyndhurst's View of the Bill — 
Lord Grey takes the Garter — The King at Ascot — Windsor under 
William IV. — Brougham at Whitbread's Brewery and at the British 
Museum — Breakfast at Rogers' — The Cholera — Quarantine — Meeting of 



THE SECOND VOLUME. Vll 

Peers — New Parliament meets — Opened by the King — 'Hernani' at 
Rridgewater House — The Second Reform Bill — The King's Coronation 
— Cobbett's Trial — Prince Leopold accepts the Crown of Belgium — 
Peel and the Tories — A Rabble Opposition — A Council for the Coro- 
nation page 121 



CHAPTER XV. 

Preparations for the Coronation — Long Wellesley committed by the 
Chancellor for Contempt — Alderman Thompson and his Constituents — 
Prince Leopold goes to Belgium — Royal Tombs and Remains — The Lieu- 
tenancy of the Tower — The Cholera — The Belgian Portresses— Secret 
Negotiations of Canning with the Whigs — Transactions before the Close 
of the Liverpool Administration — Duke of Wellington and Peel — The 
Dutch invade Belgium — Defeat of the Belgian Army — The French enter 
Belgium — Lord Grey's Composure — Audience at Windsor — Danger of 
Reform — Ellen Tree — The French in Belgium — Goodwood — The Duke 
of Richmond — The Reform Bill in Difficulties — Duke of Wellington 
calls on Lord Grey — The King declines to be kissed by the Bishops — 
Talleyrand's Conversation — State of Europe and France — Coronation 
Squabbles — The King divides the old Great Seal between Brougham and 
Lyndhurst — Relations of the Duchess of Kent to George IV. and William 
IV.— The Coronation — Irritation of the King — The Cholera — A Dinner 
at St. James's — State of the Reform Bill — Sir Augustus d'Este — Madame 
Junot — State of France — Poland 165 



CHAPTER XVI. 

Whig and Tory Meetings on Reform — Resolution to carry the Bill — Holland 
— Radical Jones — Reform Bill thrown out by the Lords — Dorsetshire 
Election — Division among the Tories — Bishop Phillpotts — Prospects of 
Reform — Its Dangers — Riots at Bristol — The Cholera at Sunderland — 
An Attempt at a Compromise on Reform — Lord WharnclifFe negotiates 
with the Ministers — Negotiation with Mr. Barnes — Proclamation against 
the Unions — Barbarism of Sunderland — Disappointment of Lord Wharn- 
clifFe — Bristol and Lyons — Commercial Negotiations with France — 
Poulett Thomson — Lord Wharncliffe's Proposal to Lord Grey — Dis- 
approved by the Duke of Wellington — Moderation of Lord John Russell 
— The Appeal of Drax v. Grosvenor — The Second Reform Bill — 
Violence of Lord Durham — More Body-snatchers — Duke of Richmond 
and Sir Henry Parnell — Panshanger — Creation of Peers — Division of 
Opinion — Negotiation to avoid the Creation of Peers — Lord Wharn- 
cliffe's Interview with the King — Opposition of the Duke of Wellington 
— The Waverers resolve to separate from the Duke . . . 197 



VOL. II. 



Till CONTENTS OF 



CHAPTER XVII. 

Measures for carrying the Second Reading of the Reform Bill in the House- 
of Lords — The Party of the Waverers — The Russo-Dutch Loan — Resist- 
ance of the Tory Peers — Lord Melbourne's Views on the Government — 
Macaulay at Holland House — Reluctance of the Government to create 
Peers — Duke of Wellington intractable — Peel's Despondency — Lord 
Grey on the Measures of Conciliation — Lord Wharncliffe sees the King 
— Prospects of the Waverers — Conversations with Lord Melbourne and 
Lord Palmerston — Duke of Richmond on the Creation of Peers — Inter- 
view of Lord Grey with the Waverers — Minute drawn up — BethnaL 
Green — The Archbishop of Canterbury vacillates — Violence of Extreme 
Parties — Princess Lieven's Journal — Lord Holland for making Peers — 
Irish National Education — Seizure of Ancona— Reform Bill passes the 
House of Commons — Lord Dudley's Madness — Debate in the Lords. 

page 237 



CHAPTER XVIII 

Debate in the House of Lords — Lord Harrowby's Position — Hopes of a Com- 
promise — Lord Melbourne's View — Disturbances caused by the Cholera 
— The Disfranchisement Clause — The Number ' 5Q ' — Peers contem- 
plated — The King's Hesitation — ' The Hunchback ' — Critical Position of 
the Waverers — Bill carried by Nine in the Lords — The Cholera in Paris 
— Moderate Speech of Lord Grey — End of the Secession — Conciliatory- 
Overtures — Negotiations carried on at Newmarket— Hostile Division in 
the Lords — Lord WharnclifFe's Account of his Failure — Lord Grey re- 
signs — The Duke of Wellington attempts to form a Ministry — Peel 
declines — Hostility of the'Court to the Whigs — A Change of Scene — The 
Duke fails — History of the Crisis — Lord Grey returns to Office — The 
King's Excitement — The King writes to the Opposition Peers — Defeat 
and Disgrace of the Tories — Conversation of the Duke of Wellington — 
Louis XVIII. — Madame du Cayla — Weakness of the King — Mortality 
among Great Men — Petition against Lord W. Bentinck's Prohibition of 
Suttee heard by the Privy Council — O'Connell and the Cholera — Irish 
Tithe Bill — Irish Difficulties— Mr. Stanley — Concluding Debates of the 
Parliament — Quarrel between Brougham and Sugden — Holland and 
Belgium — Brougham's Revenge and Apology — Dinner at Holland House 
— Anecdotes of Johnson — Death of Mr. Greville's Father — Madame de 
Flahaut's Account of the Princess Charlotte — Prince Augustus of 
Prussia — Captain Hess — Hostilities in Holland and in Portugal — The 
Duchesse de Berri — Conversation with Lord Melbourne on the State of 
the Government. 274 



THE SECOND VOLUME. ix 



CHAPTER XIX. 



Foreign Difficulties — Conduct of Peel on the Resignation of Lord Grey — 
Manners Sutton proposed as Tory Premier — Coolness between Peel and 
the Duke — Embargo on Dutch Ships — Death of Lord Tenterden — 
Denman made Lord Chief Justice — Sketch of Holland House — The 
Speakership — Home and Campbell Attorney- and Solicitor-General — The 
Court at Brighton — Lord Howe and the Queen — Elections under the 
Reform Act — Mr. Gully — Petworth — Lord Egremont— Attempt to re- 
instate Lord Howe — Namik Pacha — Lord Lyndhurst's Version of what 
occurred on the Resignation of Lord Grey — Lord Denbigh appointed 
Chamberlain to the Queen — Brougham's Privy Council Bill — Talley- 
rand's Relations with Pox and Pitt — Negro Emancipation Bill — State of 
the West Indies — The Reformed Parliament meets — Russian Intrigues — 
Four Days Debate on the Address — Peel's Political Career . page 324 



CHAPTER XX. 

Appointment of Sir Stratford Canning to the Russian Embassy — Caus e of 
the Refusal — Slavery m the West Indies — The Reformed Parliament — 
Duke of Wellington's View of Affairs — The Coercion Bill — The Privy 
Council Bill — Lord Durham made an Earl — Mr. Stanley Secretary for the 
Colonies — The Russians go to the Assistance of the Porte — Lord G ode rich 
has the Privy Seal, an Earldom, and the Garter — Embarrassments of the 
Government — The Appeal of Drax v. Grosvenor at the Privy Council 
— Hobhouse defeated in Westminster — Bill for Negro Emancipation — 
The Russians on the Bosphorus — Mr. Littleton Chief Secretary for 
Ireland — Respect shown to the Duke of Wellington — Moral of a ' Book 
on the Derby ' — The Oaks — A Betting Incident — Ascot — Government 
beaten in the Lords on Foreign Policy — Vote of Confidence in the 
Commons — Drax v. Grosvenor decided — Lord Eldon's Last Judgment — 
His Character — Duke of Wellington as Leader of Opposition — West 
India Affairs — Irish Church Bill — Appropriation Clause — A Fancy 
Bazaar — The King writes to the Bishops — Local Court Bill — 
Mirabeau • 357 



A JOUENAL 

OF THE 

EEIGN OF KING WILLIAM THE FOITKTH. 

CHAPTEE XI. 

Accession of William IV. — The King's Proceedings — His Popularity — 
Funeral of George IV. — Dislike of the Duke of Cumberland — The King's 
Simplicity and Good-nature — Reviews the Guards— The First Court — 
The King in St. James's Street — Dissolution of Parliament — The King 
dines at Apsley House — The Duke of Gloucester — The Quakers' Address — 
The Ordinances of July — The French Revolution — Brougham's Election 
for Yorkshire — Struggle in Paris — Elections Adverse to Government — 
The Duke of Wellington on the French Revolution — Duke of Cumber- 
land resigns the Gold Stick and the Blues — George IV.'s Wardrobe — 
Fall of the Bourbons — Weakness of the Duke's Ministry — The King 
at Windsor — The Duke of Orleans accepts the Crown of France — 
Chamber of Peers remodelled — Prince Polignac — The New Parliament 
— Virginia Water — Details of George IV.'s Illness and Death — Symptoms 
of Opposition — Brougham — Charles X. in England — Dinner in St. 
George's Hall — Lambeth — Marshal Marmont — His Conversation — 
Campaign of 1814 — The Conflict in Paris — Dinner at Lord Dudley's. 

1830. 

London, July 16th. — I returned here on the 6th of this 
month, and have waited these ten days to look about me 
and see and hear what is passing. The present King and 
his proceedings occupy all attention, and nobody thinks 
any more of the late King than if he had been dead fifty 
years, unless it be to abuse him and to rake up all his vices 
and misdeeds. Never was elevation like that of King 
William IY. His life has been hitherto passed in obscurity 
VOL. II. B 

n 



2 KEIG-N OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

and neglect, in miserable poverty, surrounded by a numerous 
progeny of bastards, without consideration or friends, and 
he was ridiculous from his grotesque ways and little meddling 
curiosity. Nobody ever invited him into their house, or 
thought it necessary to honour him with any mark of atten- 
tion or respect ; and so he went on for above forty years, till 
Canning brought him into notice by making him Lord High 
Admiral at the time of his grand Ministerial schism. In 
that post he distinguished himself by making absurd speeches, 
by a morbid official activity, and by a general wildness which 
was thought to indicate incipient insanity, till shortly after 
Canning's death and the Duke's accession, as is well known, 
the latter dismissed him. He then dropped back into 
obscurity, but had become by this time somewhat more of 
a personage than he was before. His brief administration, 
of the navy, the death of the Duke of York, which made him 
heir to the throne, his increased wealth and regular habits, 
had procured him more consideration, though not a great 
deal. Such was his position when George IV. broke all at 
once, and after three months of expectation William finds 
himself King. 

July 18th. — King George had not been dead three days 
before everybody discovered that he was no loss, and King' 
William a great gain. Certainly nobody ever was less 
regretted than the late King, and the breath was hardly out 
of his body before the press burst forth in full cry against 
him, and raked up all his vices, follies, and misdeeds, which 
were numerous and glaring enough. 

The new King began very well. Everybody expected he 
would keep the Ministers in office, but he threw himself 
into the arms of the Duke of Wellington with the strongest 
expressions of confidence and esteem. He proposed to all 
the Household, as well as to the members of Government, to 
keep their places, which they all did except Lord Conyngham 
and the Duke of Montrose. He soon after, however, dis- 
missed most of the equerries, that he might fill their places 
with the members of his own family. Of course such a King 
wanted not due praise, and plenty of anecdotes were raked 



1830] £IKG WILLIAM'S ACCESSION. 3 

up of his former generosities and kindnesses. His first 
speech to the Council was well enough given, but his burlesque 
character began even then to show itself. Nobody expected 
from him much real grief, and he does not seem to know 
how to act it consistently ; he spoke of his brother with all 
the semblance of feeling, and in a tone of voice properly 
softened and subdued, but just afterwards, when they gave 
him the pen to sign the declaration, he said, in his usual tone, 
6 This is a damned bad pen you have given me. 5 My worthy 
colleague Mr. James Buller began to swear Privy Councillors 
in the name of ' King George IV. — William, I mean/ to the 
great diversion of the Council. 

A few days after my return I was sworn in, all the Minis- 
ters and some others being present. His Majesty presided 
very decently, and looked like a respectable old admiral. The 
Duke [of Wellington] told me he was delighted with him — 
6 If I had been able to deal with my late master as I do with 
my present, I should have got on much better' — that he 
was so reasonable and tractable, and that he had done more 
business with him in ten minutes than with the other in as 
many days. 

I met George Fitzclarence, afterwards Earl of Munster, 1 
the same day, and repeated what the Duke said, and he told 
me how delighted his father was with the Duke, his entire 
confidence in him, and that the Duke might as entirely 
depend upon the King ; that he had told his Majesty, when 
he was at Paris, that Polignac and the Duke of Orleans had 
both asked him whether the Duke of Clarence, when he 
became King, would keep the Duke of Wellington as his 
Minister, and the King said, c What did you reply ? ' 'I 

1 [Eldest son of King William IV. by Mrs. Jordan, who was shortly 
after the accession created an earl by his father. The rank of ' marquis's 
younger children ' was conferred upon the rest of the family. The King 
had nine natural children by Mrs. Jordan : 1, George, a major-general in 
the army, afterwards Earl of Munster ; 2, Frederick, also in the army ; 3, 
Adolphus, a rear-admiral ; 4, Augustus, in holy orders ; 5. Sophia, married 
to Lord de l'lsle ; 6, Mary, married to Colonel Fox ; 7, Elizabeth, married 
to the Earl of Errol ; 8, Augusta, married first to the Hon. John Kennedy 
Erskine, and secondly to Lord John Frederick Gordon ; 9, Amelia, married 
to Viscount Falkland.] 

b 2 



4 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

replied that you certainly would ; did not I do right ? ' 
6 Certainly, you did quite right.' 

He began immediately to do good-natured things, to 
provide for old friends and professional adherents, and he 
bestowed a pension upon Tierney's widow. The great offices 
of Chamberlain and Steward he abandoned to the Duke of 
Wellington. There never was anything like the enthusiasm 
with which he was greeted by all ranks ; though he has 
trotted about both town and country for sixty-four years, 
and nobody ever turned round to look at him, he cannot stir 
now without a mob, patrician as well as plebeian, at his heels. 
All the Park congregated round the gate to see him drive 
into town the day before yesterday. But in the midst of all 
this success and good conduct certain indications of strange- 
ness and oddness peep out which are not a little alarming, 
and he promises to realise the fears of his Ministers that he 
will do and say too much, though they flatter themselves 
that they have muzzled him in his approaching progress by 
reminding him that his words will be taken as his Ministers', 
and he must, therefore, be chary of them. 

At the late King's funeral he behaved with great in- 
decency. That ceremony was very well managed, and a fine 
sight, the military part particularly, and the Guards were 
magnificent. The attendance was not very numerous, and 
when they had all got together in St. George's Hall a gayer 
company I never beheld; with the exception of Mount Charles, 
who was deeply affected, they were all as merry' as grigs. 
The King was chief mourner, and, to my astonishment, as he 
entered the chapel directly behind the body, in a situation 
in which he should have been apparently, if not really, 
absorbed in the melancholy duty he was performing, he 
darted up to Strathaven, who was ranged on one side below 
the Dean's stall, shook him heartily by the hand, and then 
went on nodding to the right and left. He had previously 
gone as chief mourner to sit for an hour at the head of the 
body as it lay in state, and he walked in procession with his 
household to the apartment. I saw him pass from behind 
the screen. Lord Jersey had been in the morning to Bushy 



1830] DISLIKE OF THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. O 

to kiss hands on being made Chamberlain, when he had 
received him very graciously, told him it was the Duke and 
not himself who had made him, but that he was delighted 
to have him. At Windsor, when he arrived, he gave 
Jersey the white wand, or rather took one from him he had 
provided for himself, and gave it him again with a little 
speech. When he went to sit in state, Jersey preceded him, 
and he said when all was ready, c Go on to the body, Jersey ; 
you will get your dress coat as soon as you can.' The 
morning after the funeral, having slept at Erogmore, he 
went all over the Castle, into every room in the house, which 
he had never seen before except when he came there as a 
guest ; after which he received an address from the ecclesias- 
tical bodies of Windsor and Eton, and returned an answer 
quite unpremeditated which they told me was excellent. 

He is very well with all his family, particularly the Duke 
of Sussex, but he dislikes and seems to know the Duke of 
Cumberland, who is furious at his own discredit. The King 
has taken from him the Gold Stick, by means of which he 
had usurped the functions of all the other colonels of the 
regiments of the Guards, and put himself always about the 
late King. He says the Duke's rank is too high to perform 
those functions, and has put an end to his services. He has 
only put the Gold Sticks on their former footing, and they are 
all to take the duty in turn. 

In the meantime the Duke of Cumberland has shown his 
teeth in another way. His horses have hitherto stood in the 
stables which are appropriated to the Queen, and the other day 
Lord Errol, her new Master of the Horse, went to her Majesty 
and asked her where she chose her horses should be; she 
said, of course, she knew nothing about it, but in the proper 
place. Errol then said the Duke of Cumberland's horses 
were in her stables, and could not be got out without an 
order from the King. The King was j spoken to, and he 
commanded the Duke of Leeds to order them out. The 
Duke of Leeds took the order to the Duke of Cumberland, 
who said ' he would be damned if they should go,' when the 
Duke of Leeds said that he trusted he would have them 



6 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

taken out the following day, as unless lie did so he should 
be under the necessity of ordering them to be removed by 
the King's grooms, when the Duke was obliged sulkily to 
give way. When the King gave the order to the Duke of 
Leeds, he sent for Taylor that he might be present, and said 
at the same time that he had a very bad opinion of the Duke 
of Cumberland, and he wished he would live out of the 
country. 

The King's good-nature, simplicity, and affability to all 
about him are certainly very striking, and in his elevation 
he does not forget any of his old friends and companions. 
He was in no hurry to take upon himself the dignity of King, 
nor to throw off the habits and manners of a country gentle- 
man. When Lord Chesterfield went to Bushy to kiss his hand, 
and be presented to the Queen, he found Sir John and Lady 
Gore there lunching, and when they went away the King called 
for their carriage, handed Lady Gore into it, and stood at 
the door to see them off. When Lord Howe came over from 
Twickenham to see him, he said the Queen was going out 
driving, and should c drop him ' at his own house. The 
Queen, they say, is by no means delighted at her elevation. 
She likes quiet and retirement and Bushy (of which the King 
has made her Ranger), and does not want to be a Queen. 
However, ' l'appetit viendra en mangeant.' He says he does 
not want luxury and magnificence, has slept in a cot, and he 
has dismissed the King's cooks, c renverse la marmite.' He 
keeps the stud (which is to be diminished) because he thinks 
he ought to support the turf. He has made Mount Charles 
a Lord of the Bedchamber, and given the Robes to Sir C. 
Pole, an admiral. Altogether he seems a kind-hearted, well- 
meaning, not stupid, burlesque, bustling old fellow, and if 
he doesn't go mad may make a very decent King, but he 
exhibits oddities. He would not have his servants in mourn- 
ing — that is, not those of his own family and household — but 
he sent the Duke of Sussex to Mrs. Fitzherbert to desire 
she would put hers in mourning, and consequently so they 
are. The King and she have always been friends, as she 
has, in fact, been with all the Royal Family, but it was very 



1830] THE KING'S ODDITIES. 7 

strange. Yesterday morning lie sent for the officer on 
guard, and ordered him to take all the muffles off the drums, 
the scarfs off the regimentals, and so to appear on parade, 
where he went himself. The colonel would have put the 
officer under arrest for doing this without his orders, but the 
King said he was commanding officer of his own guard, 
and forbade him= All odd, and people are frightened, but 
his wits will at least last till the new Parliament meets. 
I sent him a very respectful request through Taylor that he 
would pay 300L, all that remained due of the Duke of York's 
debts at Newmarket, which he assented to directly, as soon 
as the Privy Purse should be settled — very good-natured. In 
the meantime it is said that the bastards are dissatisfied 
that more is not done for them, but he cannot do much for 
them at once, and he must have time. He has done all he 
can; he has made Errol Master of the Horse, Sidney a 
Guelph and Equerry, George Fitzclarence the same and Adju- 
tant-General, and doubtless they will all have their turn. Of 
course the stories told about the rapacity of the Conynghams 
have been innumerable. The King's will excited much 
astonishment, but as yet nothing is for certain known about 
the money, or what became of it, or what he gave away, and 
to whom, in his lifetime. 

July 20th. — Yesterday was a very busy day with his 
Majesty, who is going much too fast, and begins to alarm 
his Ministers and astonish the world. In the morning he 
inspected the Coldstream Guards, dressed (for the first time 
in his life) in a military uniform and with a great pair of 
gold spurs half-way up his legs like a game cock, although 
he was not to ride, for having chalk-stones in his hands he 
can't hold the reins. The Queen came to Lady Bathurst's to 
see the review and hold a sort of drawing-room, when the 
Ministers' wives were presented to her, and official men, to 
which were added Lady Bathurst's relations ; everybody was 
in undress except the officers. She is very ugly, with a 
horrid complexion, but has good manners, and did all this 
(which she hated) very well. She said the part as if she 
was acting, and wished the green curtain to drop. After 



8 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

the review the King, with, the Dukes of Cumberland, Sussex, 
and Gloucester, and Prince George and the Prince of Prussia, 
and the Duchess of Cumberland's son, came in through the 
garden gate; the Duchess of Gloucester and Princess Augusta 
were already there ; they breakfasted and then went away, the 
Duke of Gloucester bowing to the company while nobody was 
taking any notice of him or thinking about him. Nature must 
have been merry when she made this Prince, and in the sort 
of mood that certain great artists used to exhibit in their 
comical caricatures ; I never saw a countenance which that 
line in Dryden's M'Flecknoe would so well describe — 

And lambent dulness plays around his face. 

At one there was to be a Council, to swear in Privy 
Councillors and Lords-Lieutenant, and receive Oxford and 
Cambridge addresses. The review made it an hour later, 
and the Lieutenants, who had been summoned at one, and who 
are great, selfish, pampered aristocrats, were furious at being 
kept waiting, particularly Lord Grosvenor and the Duke 
of Newcastle, the former very peevish, the latter bitter- 
humoured. I was glad to see them put to inconvenience. 
I never saw so full a Court, so much nobility with acade- 
mical tagrag and bobtail. After considerable delay the 
King received the Oxford and Cambridge addresses on the 
throne, which (having only one throne between them) he 
then abdicated for the Queen to seat herself on and receive 
them too. She sat it very well, surrounded by the Princesses 
and her ladies and household. When this mob could be got 
rid of the table was brought in and the Council held. The 
Duke was twice sworn as Constable of the Tower and Lieu- 
tenant of Hants ; then Jersey and the new Privy Councillors ; 
and then the host of Lieutenants six or seven at a time, 
or as many as could hold a bit of the Testament. I begged 
the King would, to expedite the business, dispense with their 
kneeling, which he did, and so we got on rapidly enough ; 
and I whispered to Jersey, who stood by me behind the King 
with his white wand, e The farce is good, isn't it ? ' as they 
each kissed his hand. I told him their name or county, or 



1830] THE KING IN ST. JAMES'S STKEET. 9 

both., and he had a civil word to say to everybody, inviting 
some to dinner, promising to visit others, reminding them of 
former visits, or something good-humoured ; he asked Lord 
Egremont's permission to go and live in his county, at 
Brighton. 

All this was very well ; no great harm in it ; more 
affable, less dignified than the late King; but when this 
was over, and he might very well have sat himself quietly 
down and rested, he must needs put on his plainer clothes 
and start on a ramble about the streets, alone too. In 
Pall Mall he met Watson Taylor, and took his arm and 
went up St. James's Street. There he was soon followed 
by a mob making an uproar, and when he got near White's 
a woman came up and kissed him. Belfast (who had 
been sworn in Privy Councillor in the morning), who saw 
this from White's, and Clinton thought it time to interfere, 
and came out to attend upon him. The mob increased, and, 
always holding W. Taylor's arm, and. flanked by Clinton 
and Belfast, who got shoved and kicked about to their in- 
expressible wrath, he got back to the Palace amid shouting 
and bawling and applause. When he got home he asked 
them to go in and take a quiet walk in the garden, and said, 
c Oh, never mind all this ; when I have walked about a few 
times they wi]l get used to it, and will take no notice.' 
There are other stories, but I will put down nothing I do not 
see or hear, or hear from the witnesses. Belfast told me this 
in the Park, fresh from the scene and smarting from the 
buffeting he had got. All the Park was ringing with it, and 
I told Lady Bathurst, who thought it so serious she said she 
would get Lord Bathurst to write to the Duke directly about 
it. Lord Combermere wanted to be made a Privy Coun- 
cillor yesterday, but the Duke would not let it be done ; he 
is in a sort of half-disgrace, and is not to be made yet, but 
will be by-and-by. 

Grove Road, July 21st. — I came and established myself 
here last night after the Duchess of Bedford's ball. Lady 
Bathurst told me that the Queen spoke to her yesterday 
morning about the King's walk and being followed, and 



10 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

said that for the future he must walk early in the morning, 
or in some less public place, so there are hopes that his 
activity may be tamed. He sent George Fitzclarence off 
from dinner in his silk stockings and cocked hat to Boulogne 
to invite the King of Wiirtemberg to come here ; he was 
back in fifty-six hours, and might have been in less. He 
employs him in everything, and I heard Fitzclarence yester- 
day ask the Duke of Leeds for two of his father's horses to 
ride about on his jobs and relieve his own, which the Duke 
agreed to, but made a wry face. Mount Charles has refused 
to be Lord of the Bedchamber ; his wife can't bear it, and he 
doesn't like to go to Windsor under such altered circum- 
stances. I hardly ever record the scandalous stories of the 
day, unless they relate to characters or events, but what re- 
lates to public men is different from the loves and friendships 
of the idiots of society. 

July 24ith. — Went to St. James's the day before yesterday 
for a Council for the dissolution, but there was none. Yes- 
terday morning there was an idea of having one, but it is 
to-day instead, and early in the morning, that the Ministers 
inay be able to go to their fish dinner at Greenwich. I 
called on the Duke yesterday evening to know about a Coun- 
cil, but he could not tell me. Then came a Mr. Moss (or his 
card) while I was there. ' Who is he ? ' I said. c Oh, a man 
who wants to see me about a canal. I can't see him. Every- 
body will see me, and how the Devil they think I am to see 
everybody, and be the whole morning with the King, and to 
do the whole business of the country, I don't know. I am 
quite worn out with it.' I longed to tell him that it is this 
latter part they would willingly relieve him from. 

I met Yesey Fitzgerald, just come from Paris, and had 
a long conversation with him about the state of the Govern- 
ment; he seems aware of the difficulties and the necessity 
of acquiring more strength, of the universal persuasion that 
the Duke will be all in all, and says that in the Cabinet 
nobody can be more reasonable and yielding and deferential 
to the opinions of his colleagues. But Murray's appoint- 



1830] THE KING GOES DOWN TO PARLIAMENT. 11 

ment, lie says, was a mistake, 1 and no personal consideration 
should induce the Duke to sacrifice the interests of the 
country by keeping him ; it may be disagreeable to dismiss 
him, but he must do it. Hay told me that for the many 
years he had been in office he had never met with any public 
officer so totally inefficient as he, not even Warrender at the 
Admiralty Board. 

In the meantime the King has had his levee, which was 
crowded beyond all precedent. He was very civil to the 
people, particularly to Sefton, who had quarrelled with the 
late King. 

Yesterday he went to the House of Lords, and was 
admirably received. I can fancy nothing like his delight at 
finding himself in the state coach surrounded by all his 
pomp. He delivered the Speech very well, they say, for I 
did not go to hear him. He did not wear the crown, 
which was carried by Lord Hastings. Etiquette is a thing- 
he can not comprehend. He wanted to take the King of 
Wurtemberg with him in his coach, till he was told it was 
out of the question. In his private carriage he continues 
to sit backwards, and when he goes with men makes one 
sit by him and not opposite to him. Yesterday, after the 
House of Lords, he drove all over the town in an open 
caleche with the Queen, Princess Augusta, and the King of 
Wurtemberg, and coming borne he set down the King 
(dropped him, as he calls it) at Grillon's Hotel. The King of 
England dropping another king at a tavern ! It is im- 
possible not to be struck with his extreme good-nature and 
simplicity, which he cannot or will not exchange for the 
dignity of his new situation and the trammels of etiquette ; 
but he ought to be made to understand that his simplicity 
degenerates into vulgarity, and that without departing from 
his natural urbanity he may conduct himself so as not to 
lower the character with which he is invested, and which 
belongs not to him, but to the country. 



r * [Sir George Murray was Secretary of State for the Colonial Depart- 
ment.] 



12 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

At his dinner at St. James's the other day more people 
were invited than there was room for, and some half-dozen 
were forced to sit at a side table. He said to Lord Brown- 
low, c Well, when you are flooded (he thinks Lincolnshire is 
all fen) you will come to us at Windsor.' To the Free- 
masons he was rather good. The Duke of Sussex wanted 
him to receive their address in a solemn audience, which he 
refused, and when they did come he said, ' Gentlemen, if my 
love for you equalled my ignorance of everything concerning 
you, it would be unbounded,' and then he added something 
good-humoured. The consequence of his trotting about, and 
saying the odd things he does, is that there are all sorts of 
stories about him which are not true, and he is always ex- 
pected everywhere. In the meantime I believe that poli- 
tically he relies implicitly on the Duke, who can make him 
do anything. Agar Ellis (who is bustling and active, always 
wishing to play a part, and gets mixed up with the politics 
of this and that party through his various connections) 
told me the other day that he knew the Duke was knocking 
at every door, hitherto without success, and that he must 
be contented to take a party, and not expect to strengthen 
himself by picking out individuals. I think this too, but 
why not open his doors to all comers ? There are no ques- 
tions now to stand in his way ; his Government must be re- 
modelled, and he may last for ever personally. 

July 25th. — Yesterday at Court at eleven ; a Council for 
the dissolution. This King and these Councils are very un- 
like the last — few people present, frequent, punctual, less 
ceremony observed. Though these Ministers have been in 
office all their lives, nobody knew how many days must elapse 
before Parliament was summoned ; some said sixty, some 
seventy days, but not one knew, nor had they settled the 
matter previously ; so Lord Rosslyn and I were obliged to 
go to Bridgewater House, which was near, and consult the 
journals. It has always been fifty-two days of late. 

In the afternoon another embarrassment. We sent the 
proclamations to the Chancellor (one for England and one 
for Ireland), to have the Great Seal affixed to them; he 



1830] THE KING DINES AT APSLEY HOUSE. 13 

would only affix the Seal to the English, and sent back the 
Irish unsealed. The Secretary of State would not send it to 
Ireland without the Great Seal, and all the Ministers were 
gone to the fish dinner at Greenwich, so that there was no 
getting at anybody. At last we got it done at Lincoln's Inn 
and sent it off. The fact is, nobody knows his business, and 
the Chancellor least of all. The King continues very active ; 
he went after the Council to Buckingham House, then to the 
Thames Tunnel, has immense dinners every day, and the 
same people two or three days running. He has dismissed 
the late King's band, and employs the bands of the Guards 
every night, who are ready to die of it, for they get no pay 
and are prevented earning money elsewhere. The other 
night the King had a party, and at eleven o'clock he dis- 
missed them thus : 6 Now, ladies and gentlemen, I wish you a 
good night. I will not detain you any longer from your 
amusements, and shall go to my own, which is to go to bed ; 
so come along, my Queen.' The other day he was very 
angry because the guard did not know him in his plain 
clothes and turn out for him — the first appearance of jealousy 
of his greatness he has shown — and he ordered them to be 
more on the alert for the future. 

July 26th. — Still the King ; his adventures (for they are 
nothing else) furnish matter of continual amusement and 
astonishment to his liege subjects. Yesterday morning, or 
the evening before, he announced to the Duke of Wellington 
that he should dine with him yesterday ; accordingly the 
Duke was obliged, in the midst of preparations for his 
breakfast, to get a dinner ready for him. In the morning 
he took the King of Wiirtemberg to Windsor, and just at the 
hour when the Duke expected him to dinner he was driving 
through Hyde Park back from Windsor — three barouches- 
and-four, the horses dead knocked up, in the front the two 
Kings, Jersey, and somebody else, all covered with dust. The 
whole mob of carriages and horsemen assembled near Apsley 
House to see him pass and to wait till he returned. The 
Duke, on hearing he was there, rushed down without his hat 
and stood in his gate in the middle of servants, mob, &c, to 



14 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

see him pass. He drove to Grillon's e to drop ' the King of 
Wiirtemberg, and at a quarter past eight he arrived at 
Apsley House. There were about forty-five men, no women, 
half the Ministers, most of the foreign Ministers, and a 
mixture rather indiscriminate. In the evening I was at 
Lady Salisbury's, when arrived the Duke of Sussex, who 
gave a short account to Sefton of what had passed, and of 
the King's speech to the company. ' You and I,' he said, c are 
old Whigs, my Lord, and I confess I was somewhat as- 
tonished to hear his Majesty's speech.' I went afterwards 
to Crockford's, where I found Matuscewitz, who gave me a 
whole account of the dinner. The two Kings went out to 
dinner arm in arm, the Duke followed ; the King sat between 
the King of Wiirtemberg and the Duke. After dinner his 
health was drunk, to which he returned thanks, sitting, but 
briefly, and promised to say more by-and-by when he should 
give a toast. In process of time he desired Douro to go and 
tell the band to play the merriest waltz they could for the 
toast he was about to give. He then gave e The Queen of 
Wiirtemberg,' with many eulogiums on her and on the 
connubial felicity of her and the King ; not a very agreeable 
theme for his host, for conjugal fidelity is not his forte. At 
length he desired Douro to go again to the band and order 
them to play ( See the conquering hero comes,' and then he 
rose. All the company rose with him, when he ordered 
everybody to sit down. Still standing, he said that he had 
been so short a time on the throne that he did not know 
whether etiquette required that he should speak sitting or 
standing, but, however this might be, he had been long 
used to speak on his legs, and should do so now ; he then 
proposed the Duke's health, but prefaced it with a long 
speech — instituted a comparison between him and the Duke 
of Marlborough ; went back to the reign of Queen Anne, and 
talked of the great support the Duke of Marlborough had 
received from the Crown, and the little support the Duke of 
Wellington had had in the outset of his career, though after 
the battle of Yimeiro he had been backed by all the energies 
of the country; that, notwithstanding his difficulties, his 



1830] THE KING'S SPEECH AT APSLEY HOUSE. 15 

career had been one continued course of victory over the 
armies of France; and then recollecting the presence of 
Laval, the French Ambassador, he said, { Remember, Due de 
Laval, when I talk of victories over the French armies, they 
were not the armies of my ally and friend the Xing of 
France, but of him who had usurped his throne, and 
against whom you yourself were combating ; ' then going 
back to the Duke's career, and again referring to the com- 
parison between him and Marlborough, and finishing by 
adverting to his political position, that he had on mounting 
the throne found the Duke Minister, and that he had re- 
tained him because he thought his Administration had been 
and would be highly beneficial to the country ; that he gave 
to him his fullest and most cordial confidence, and that he 
announced to all whom he saw around him, to all the Am- 
bassadors and Ministers of foreign Powers, and to all the 
noblemen and gentlemen present, that as long as he should 
sit upon the throne he should continue to give him the same 
confidence. The Duke returned thanks in a short speech, 
thanking the King for his confidence and support, and de- 
claring that all his endeavours would be used to keep this 
country in relations of harmony with other nations. The 
whole company stood aghast at the King's extraordinary 
speech and declaration. Matuscewitz told me he never was 
so astonished, that for the world he would not have missed 
it, and that he would never have believed in it if he had 
not heard it. 

Falck l gave me a delightful account of the speech and 
of Laval. He thought, not understanding one word, that 
all the King was saying was complimentary to the King of 
France and the French nation, and he kept darting from his 
seat to make his acknowledgments, while Esterhazy held 
him down by the tail of his coat, and the King stopped him 

1 [Baron Falck, Dutch Minister at the Court of St. James's. M. de 
Laval was the French Ambassador. This dinner took place on the day after 
the publication of the ordinances of July. Three days later Charles X. had 
ceased to reign. M. de Laval instantly left London on the receipt of the 
intelligence, leaving M. de Vaudreuil as Charge" d'Affaires.] 



16 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

with his hand outstretched, all with great difficulty. He 
said it was very comical. 

July 27th. — Review in the morning (yesterday), breakfast 
at Apsley House, chapter of the Garter, dinner at St. 
James's, party in the evening, and ball at Apsley House. I 
don't hear of anything remarkable, and it was so hot I could 
not go to anything, except the breakfast, which I just looked 
in to for a minute, and found everybody sweating and stuffing 
and the royalties just going away. The Duke of Gloucester 
keeps up his quarrel with the Duke ; the Duke of Cumber- 
land won't go to Apsley House, but sent the Duchess and 
his boy. The Queen said at dinner the other day to the 
Duke of Cumberland, ' I am very much pleased with you for 
sending the Duchess to Apsley House,' and then turned to 
the Duke of Gloucester and said, c but I am not pleased with 
you for not letting the Duchess go there.' The fool answered 
that the Duchess should never go there ; he would not be 
reconciled, forgetting that it matters not twopence to the 
Duke of Wellington and a great deal to himself. 

I have been employed in settling half a dozen disputes of 
different sorts, but generally without success, trifling matters, 
foolish or violent people, not worth remembering any of 
them. The Chancellor, who does not know his own business, 
has made an attack on my office about the proclamations, 
but I have vindicated it in a letter to Lord Bathurst. 

July 28th. — Yesterday Charles Wynn and I settled the 
dispute between Clive and Charlton about the Ludlow 
matters. Charlton agrees to retire from the contest both in 
the Borough and Corporation, and Clive agrees to pay him 
1,1 25Z. towards his expenses, and not to oppose the reception 
of any petition that may be presented to the House of Com- 
mons for the purpose of re-opening the question of the right 
of voting. Both parties are very well satisfied with this 
termination of their disputes. Met the Chancellor at Lady 
Eavensworth's breakfast yesterday, who told me he had sent 
a rejoinder to my letter to Lord Bathurst about the pro- 
clamations. 

July 29th. — Yesterday a standing Council at the levee. 



1830] ORDINANCES OF CHARLES X. 17 

to swear in Lord Hereford and Vesey Fitzgerald, and to 
declare Lord Bathurst President of the Council and the 
Duke of Northumberland Lord -Lieutenant of Ireland. Pre- 
viously the King received the address of the dissenting 
ministers, and then that of the Quakers, presented by 
William Allen ; they were very prim and respectable persons ; 
their hats were taken off by each other in the room before 
the Throne Koom, and they did not bow, though they seemed 
half inclined to do so ; they made a very loyal address, but 
without ' Majesty,' and said 6 King.' There was a question 
after his answer what' they should do. I thought it was 
whether they should kiss hands, for the King said something 
to Peel, who went and asked them, and I heard the King 
say, ' Oh, just as they like ; they needn't if they don't like ; 
it's all one.' 

But the great event of the day was the reception of the 
King of France's two decrees, and the address of his 
Ministers, who produced them ; nothing could surpass the 
universal astonishment and consternation. Falck told me 
he was reading the newspaper at his breakfast regularly 
through, and when he came to this the teacup almost 
dropped from his hands, and he rubbed his eyes to see 
whether he read correctly. Such was the secresy with which 
this measure was conceived and acted on, that Pozzo, who is 
quicker and has better intelligence than anybody, had not a 
notion of it, as Matuscewitz told me. Aberdeen learnt it 
through the ' Times,' and had not a line from Stuart. That, 
however, is nothing extraordinary. I suspect somebody had 
it, for Eaikes wrote me a note the day before, to ask me if 
there was not something bad from France. Matuscewitz told 
me that Kussia would not afford Charles X. the smallest 
support in his new crusade against the Constitution of 
France, and this he pronounced openly a qui voulait V en- 
tendre. I suspect the Duke will be desperately annoyed. 
The only Minister I had a word with about it was Lord 
Bathurst, whose Tory blood bubbled a little quicker at such 
a despotic act, and while owning the folly of the deed he 
could not help adding that ' he should have repressed the 

VOL. II. C 






18 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

press when he dissolved the Chambers, then he might have 
done it.' 

July 30th. — Everybody anxious for news from France. 
A few hope, and still fewer think, the King of France will 
succeed, and that the French will submit, but the press 
here joins in grand chorus against the suppression of the 
liberty of that over the water. Matuscewitz told me he had 
a conference with the Duke, who was excessively annoyed, 
but what seems to have struck him more than anything is 
the extraordinary secresy of the business, and neither Pozzo 
nor Stuart having known one word of it. Up to the last 
Polignac has deceived everybody, and put such words into 
the King's mouth that nobody could expect such a coup. 
The King assured Pozzo di Borgo the day before that 
nothing of the sort was in contemplation. This, like every- 
thing else, will be judged by the event — desperate fatuity if 
it fails, splendid energy and accurate calculation of oppo- 
site moral forces if it succeeds. I judge that it will fail, 
because I can see no marks of wisdom in the style of execu- 
tion, and the State paper is singularly puerile and weak in 
argument. It is passionate and not dexterous, not even 
plausible. All this is wonderfully interesting, and will give 
us a lively autumn. 

The King has been to Woolwich, inspecting the artillery, 
to whom he gave a dinner, with toasts and hip, hip, hurrahing 
and three times three, himself giving the time. I tremble 
for him ; at present he is only a mountebank, but he bids fair 
to be a maniac. 

Brougham will come in for Yorkshire without a contest ; 
his address was very eloquent. He is rather mad without a 
doubt; his speeches this year have been sometimes more 
brilliant than ever they were ; but who with such stupendous 
talents was ever so little considered ? We admire him as 
we do a fine actor, and nobody ever possessed such enormous 
means, and displayed a mind so versatile, fertile, and com- 
prehensive, and yet had so little efficacy and influence. 
He told me just before he left town that Yorkshire had been 
proposed to him, but that he had written word he would not 



1830] REVOLUTION IN PAEIS. 19 

stand, nor spend a guinea, nor go there, nor even take the 
least trouble about the concerns of anyone of his constituents, 
if thej elected him ; but he soon changed his note. 

July 31s£. — Yesterday morning I met Matuscewitz in St. 
James's Street, who said, ' You have heard the news ? ' But 
I had not, so I got into his cabriolet, and he told me that 
Billow had just been with him with an account of Roth- 
schild's estafette, who had brought intelligence of a desperate 
conflict at Paris between the people and the Royal Guard, in 
which 1,000 men had been killed of the former, and of the 
eventual revolt of two regiments, which decided the business ; 
that the Swiss had refused to fire on the people ; the King is 
gone to Rambouillet, the Ministers are missing, and the Depu- 
ties who were at Paris had assembled in the Chambers, and 
declared their sittings permanent. Nothing can exceed the 
interest and excitement that all these proceedings create here, 
and unless there is a reaction, which does not seem probable, 
the game is up with the Bourbons. They richly deserve 
their fate. It remains to be seenlwhat part Bourmont and 
the Algerian army will take ; the latter will probably side with 
the nation, and the former will be guided by his own interest, 
and is not unlikely to endeavour to direct a spirit which he 
could not expect to control. He may reconcile himself to the 
country by a double treachery. 

At night. — To-day at one o'clock Stuart's messenger 
arrived with a meagre account, having left Paris on the 
night of the 29th. The tricoloured flag had been raised; the 
National Guard was up, commanded by old Lafayette (their 
chief forty years ago), who ruled in Paris with Gerard, 
Odier, Casimir Perier, Lafitte, and one or two more. The 
Tuileries and the Louvre had been pillaged ; the King was at 
Rambouillet, where Marshal Marmont had retired, and had 
with him a large force. Nobody, however, believed they would 
fight against the people. The Deputies and the Peers had met, 
and the latter separated without doing anything ; the former 
had a stormy discussion, but came to no resolution. Some 
were for a republic, some for^the Duke of Orleans, some for 
the Duke of Bordeaux with the Duke of Orleans as Regent. 

c 2 



20 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XL 

Rothschild had another courier with later intelligence. The 
King had desired to treat, and that proposals might be made 
to him ; all the Ministers escaped from Paris by a subter- 
ranean passage which led from the Tuileries to the river, 
and even at St. Cloud the Duke told Matuscewitz that ' Mar- 
mont had taken up a good military position/ as if it was a 
military and not a moral question. Strange he should think 
of such a thing, but they are all terrified to death at the 
national flag and colours, because they see in its train 
revolutions, invasions, and a thousand alarms. I own I 
would rather have seen an easy transfer of the Crown to 
some other head under the white flag. There was Lady 
Tankerville going about to-day enquiring of everybody for 
news, trembling for her brother ( and his brigade.' Late in 
the day she got Lady Jersey to go with her to Eothschild, 
whom she saw, and Madame Eothschild, who showed her all 
their letters. Tankerville, who is a sour, malignant little Whig 
(since become an ultra-Tory), loudly declares Polignac ought 
to be hung. The elections here are going against Govern- 
ment, and no candidate will avow that he stands on Govern- 
ment interest, or with the intention of supporting the Duke's 
Ministry, which looks as if it had lost all its popularity. 

August 2nd. — Yesterday (Sunday) we had no news and no 
reports, except one that Marmont was killed. I never be- 
lieve reports. The elections still go against Government. G. 
Dawson returned from Dublin ; all the Peels lose their seats. 
Pordwich beat Baring at Canterbury by 370 votes. It is 
said the King was in a state of great excitement at Wool- 
wich the other day, when it was very hot, and he drank a 
good deal of wine. 

Evening. — This morning, on going into town, I read in 
the ' Times ' the news of the day — the proclamation of the 
Provisional Government, the invitation to the Duke of 
Orleans, his proclamation, and the account of the con- 
versation between Lafitte and Marmont. It is in vain to look 
for private or official information, for the e Times ' always 
has the latest and the best ; Stuart sends next to nothing- 
Soon after I got to George Street the Duke of Wellington 



1830] WELLINGTON ON THE FEENCH KEVOLUTION. 21 

came in, in excellent spirits, and talked over the whole 
matter. He said he conld not comprehend how the Boyal 
Guard had been defeated by the mob, and particularly how 
they had been forced to evacuate the Tuileries ; that he had 
seen English and French troops hold houses whole days not 
one-fourth so strong. I said that there could not be a 
shadow of doubt that it was because they would not fight, 
that if they would have fought they must have beat the 
mob, and reminded him of the French at Madrid, and asked 
him if he did not think his regiment would beat all the 
populace of London, which he said ifc would. He described 
the whole affair as it has taken place, and said that there 
can be no doubt that the moneyed men of Paris (who are all 
against the Government) and the Liberals had foreseen a 
violent measure on the part of the King, and had organised 
the resistance ; that on the appearance of the edicts the 
bankers simultaneously refused to discount any bills, on 
which the great manufacturers and merchants dismissed 
their workmen, to the number of many thousands, who in- 
flamed the public discontent, and united to oppose the 
military and the execution of the decrees. He said posi- 
tively that we should not take any part, and that no other 
Government ought or could. He does not like the Duke of 
Orleans, and thinks his proclamation mean and shabby, but 
owned that under all circumstances his election to the Crown 
would probably be the best thing that could happen. The 
Duke of Chartres he had known here, and thought he was 
intelligent. The Duke considered the thing as settled, but 
did not feel at all sure they would offer the Crown to the 
Duke of Orleans. He said he could not guess or form an 
opinion as to their ulterior proceedings. 

After discussing the whole business with his usual 
simplicity, he began talking of the Duke of Cumberland and 
his resignation of the command of the Blues. Formerly the 
colonels of the two regiments of Life Guards held alter- 
nately the Gold Stick, and these two regiments were under 
the immediate orders of the King, and not of the Com- 
mander-in-Chief. When the Duke of Wellington returned 



22 KEItfN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

from Spain and had the command of the Blues, the King 
insisted npon his taking the duty also ; so it was divided 
into three, but the Blues still continued under the Com- 
mander-in-Chief. But when the Duke of Cumberland 
wanted to be continually about the King, he got him to give 
him the command of the Household troops ; this was at the 
period of the death of the Duke of York and the Duke of 
Wellington's becoming Commander-in-Chief. The Duke of 
Cumberland told the Duke of Wellington that he had re- 
ceived the King's verbal commands to that effect, and from 
that time he alone kept the Gold Stick, and the Blues were 
withdrawn from the authority of the Commander-in-Chief. 
The Duke of Wellington made no opposition ; but last year, 
during the uproar on the Catholic question, he perceived the 
inconvenience of the arrangement, and intended to speak 
to the King about it, for the Duke of Cumberland was 
concerned in organising mobs to go down to Windsor 
to frighten Lady Conyngham and the King, and the Horse 
Guards, who would naturally have been called out to suppress 
any tumult, would not have been disposable without the 
Duke of Cumberland's concurrence, so much so that on one 
particular occasion, when the Kentish men were to have 
gone to Windsor 20,000 strong, the Duke of Wellington 
detained a regiment of light cavalry who were marching 
elsewhere, that he might not be destitute of military aid. 
Before, however, he did anything about this with the King 
('I always,' he said, 'do one thing at a time') his Majesty 
was taken ill and died. 

On the accession of the present King the Duke of 
Cumberland wished to continue the same system, which his 
Majesty was resolved he should not, and he ordered that the 
colonels of the regiments should take the Stick in rotation. 
He also ordered (through Sir E. Peel) that Lord Combermere 
should command the troops at the funeral as Gold Stick. 
This the Duke of Cumberland resisted, and sent down orders 
to Lord Cathcart to assume the command. The Duke of 
Wellington, however, represented to Lord Cathcart that he 
had better do no such thing, as nobody could disobey the 



1830] WAEDEOBE OF GEOEGE IV. 23 

King's orders gone through the Secretary of State, and ac- 
cordingly he did nothing. But the King was determined to 
put an end to the pretensions of the Duke of Cumberland, 
and spoke to the Duke on the subject, and said that he 
would have all the regiments placed under the orders of the 
Commander-in-Chief. The Duke recommended him to re- 
place the matter in the state in which it stood before the 
Duke of Cumberland's pretensions had altered it, but he 
would not do this, and chose to abide by his original inten- 
tion ; so the three regiments were placed under the orders of 
the Horse Guards like the rest, and the Duke of Cumberland 
in consequence resigned the command of the Blues. 

August 3rd. — Notwithstanding the above story, the King 
dined with the Duke of Cumberland at Kew yesterday. I 
went yesterday to the sale of the late King's wardrobe, 
which was numerous enough to fill Monmouth Street, and 
sufficiently various and splendid for the wardrobe of Drury 
Lane. He hardly ever gave away anything except his 
linen, which was distributed every year. These clothes are 
the perquisite of his pages, and will fetch a pretty sum. 
There are all the coats he has ever had for fifty years, 
300 whips, canes without number, every sort of uniform, the 
costumes of all the orders in Europe, splendid furs, pelisses, 
hunting-coats and breeches, and among other things a 
dozen pair of corduroy breeches he had made to hunt in 
when Don Miguel was here. His profusion in these articles 
was unbounded, because he never paid for them, and his 
memory was so accurate that one of his pages told me he 
recollected every article of dress, no matter how old, and 
that they were always liable to be called on to produce some 
particular coat or other article of apparel of years gone by. 
It is difficult to say whether in great or little things that 
man was most odious and contemptible. 

Nothing from France yesterday but the most absurd 
reports. 

August hth. — Yesterday morning at a Council ; all the 
Ministers, and the Duke of Eutland, Lords Somers, Eosslyn, 
and Gower to be sworn Lieutenants. Talked about France 



24 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

with Sir G. Murray, who was silly enough to express his 
disappointment that things promised to be soon and quietly 
settled, and hoped the King would have assembled an army 
and fought for it. Afterwards a levee. While the Queen 
was in the closet they brought her word that Charles X. 
was at Cherbourg, and had sent for leave to come here ; but 
nobody knew yesterday if this was true or not. In the 
afternoon I met Vaudreuil, and had a long conversation with 
him on the state of things. He said, ' My family has been 
twice ruined by these cursed Bourbons, and I will be damned 
if they shall a third time ; ' that he had long foreseen the in- 
evitable tendency of Polignac's determination, ever since he 
was here, when he had surrounded himself with low agents 
and would admit no gentleman into his confidence ; one of 
his affides was a man of the name of Carrier, a relation of the 
famous Carrier de Nantes. VaudreuiFs father-in-law had 
consulted him many months ago what to do with 300,00OL 
which he had in the French funds, and he advised him to 
sell it out and put it in his drawer, which he did, sacrificing 
the interest for that time. He had hitherto done nothing, 
been near none of the Ministers, feeling that he could say 
nothing to them ; no communication had been made to him, 
but whenever any should be he intended to reply to it. 
Laval ran away just in time, and Vaudreuil was so provoked 
at his evasion that he sent after him to say that in such 
important circumstances he could not take upon himself to 
act without his Ambassador's instructions. No answer of 
course. He thinks that if this had not taken place a few 
years must have terminated the reign of the Bourbons, and 
that it is only the difference between sudden and lingering 
death ; that when he was at Paris he had seen the dissatis- 
faction of the young officers in the Guards, who were all 
Liberal ; and with these sentiments, what a condition they 
must have been in when called upon to charge and fire on 
the people while secretly approving of their conduct, c entre 
leurs devoirs de citoyens et de militaires ! ' 

I had a conversation with Fitzgerald (Vesey) the other 
day about the Government and its prospects. They want 



1830] THE KING GOES TO WINDSOR. 25 

him greatly to return to office, but he is going abroad again 
for his health, and I suspect is not very anxious to come in 
just now, when things look gloomy. He thinks they have 
acted very injudiciously in sending down candidates to 
turn out their opponents, attempts which generally failed, 
and only served to exasperate the people interested more 
and more against them. Such men as the Grants, as he 
said, cannot be kept out of Parliament. But they manage 
everything ill, and it is impossible to look at the present 
Ministry and watch its acts, and not marvel that the Duke 
should think of going on with it. If he does not take 
care he will be dragged down by it, whereas if he would, 
while it is yet time, remodel it altogether, and open his 
doors to all who are capable of serving under him (for all 
are ready to take him as chief), he might secure to himself a 
long and honourable possession of power. Then it is said 
he can't whistle off these men merely because it is con- 
venient, but he had better do that than keep them on 
bungling through all the business of the country. Besides, I 
have some doubts of his tender-heartedness in this respect. 

Goodwood, August 10th, — On Saturday, the 7th, the King 
and Queen breakfasted at Osterley, on their way to Windsor. 
They had about sixty or seventy people to meet them, and it 
all went off very well, without anything remarkable. I went 
to Stoke afterwards, where there was the usual sort of party. 

The King entered Windsor so privately that few people 
knew him, though he made the horses walk all the way from 
Progmore that he might be seen. On Saturday and Sunday the 
Terrace was thrown open, and the latter day it was crowded 
by multitudes and a very gay sight ; there were sentinels on 
each side of the east front to prevent people walking under 
the windows of the living-rooms, but they might go where 
else they liked. The King went to Bagshot and did not 
appear. All the late King's private drives through the Park 
are also thrown open, but not to carriages. We went, how- 
ever, a long string of four carriages, to explore, and got 
through the whole drive round by Virginia Water, the famous 
fishing-pagoda, and saw all the penetralia of the late King, 



26 REIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

whose ghost must have been indignant at seeing us (Sefton 
particularly) scampering all about his most secret recesses. 
It is an exceedingly enjoyable spot, and pretty, but has not 
so much beauty as I expected. 

Came here yesterday and found thirty-two people as- 
sembled. I rode over the downs three or four miles (from 
Petworth), and never saw so delightful a country to live in. 
There is an elasticity in the air and turf which communi- 
cates itself to the spirits. 

In the meantime the French Revolution has been pro- 
ceeding rapidly to its consummation, and the Duke of 
Orleans is King. Montr ond, who was at Stoke, thinks that 
France will gravitate towards a republic, and principally for 
this reason, that there is an unusual love of equality, and no 
disposition to profit by the power of making majorats, there- 
fore that there never can be anything like an aristocracy. 
We are so accustomed to see the regular working of our 
constitutional system, with all its parts depending upon 
each other, and so closely interwoven, that we have difficulty 
in believing that any monarchical Government can exist 
which is founded on a basis so different. This is the great 
political problem which is now to be solved. I think, how- 
ever, that in the present settlement it is not difficult to see 
the elements of future contention and the working of a 
strong democratical spirit. The Crown has been conferred 
on the Duke of Orleans by the Chamber of Deputies alone, 
which, so far from inviting the Chamber of Peers to di scuss 
the question of succession, has at the same time decreed a 
material alteration in that Chamber itself. It has at a blow 
cut off ail the Peers of Yillele's great promotion, which is an 
enormous act of authority, although the measure may be 
advisable. There is also a question raised of the hereditary 
quality of the peerage, and I dare say that for the future 
at least peerages will not be hereditary, not that I think this 
signifies as to the existence of an aristocracy, for the con- 
stant subdivision of property must deprive the Chamber of 
all the qualities belonging to an English House of Lords, 
and it would perhaps be better to establish another prin- 



1830] . FEEXCH DEMOCRACY. 27 

ciple, such, as that of promoting to the Chamber of Peers 
men (for life) of great wealth, influence, and ability, who 
would constitute an aristocracy of a different kind indeed, 
but more respectable and efficient, than a host of poor 
hereditary senators. What great men are Lord Lonsdale, 
the Duke of Rutland, and Lord Cleveland ! but strip them 
of their wealth and power, what would they be ? Among 
the most insignificant of mankind; but they all acquire a 
factitious consideration by the influence they possess to do 
good and evil, the extension of it over multitudes of depend- 
ents. The French can have no aristocracy but a personal 
one, ours is in the institution ; theirs must be individually 
respectable, as ours is collectively looked up to. In the 
meantime it will be deemed a great step gained to have a 
monarchy established in France at all, even for the moment, 
but some people are alarmed at the excessive admiration 
which the French Revolution has excited in England, and 
there is a very general conviction that Spain will speedily 
follow the example of France, and probably Belgium also. 
Italy I don't believe will throw off the yoke ; they have 
neither spirit nor unanimity, and the Austrian military force 
is too great to be resisted. But Austria will tremble and see 
that the great victory which Liberalism has gained has 
decided the question as to which principle, that of light or 
darkness, shall prevail for the future in the world. 

London, August 14th. — Stayed at Goodwood till the 12th ; 
went to Brighton, riding over the downs from Goodwood to 
Arundel, a delightful ride. How much I prefer England to 
Italy ! There we have mountains and sky ; here, vegetation 
and verdure, fine trees and soft turf; and in the long run 
the latter are the most enjoyable. Yesterday came to 
London from Brighton ; found things much as they were, but 
almost everybody gone out of town. The French are pro- 
ceeding steadily in the reconstruction of their Government, 
but they have evinced a strong democratical spirit. The new 
King, too, conducts himself in a way that gives me a bad 
opinion of him; he is too complaisant to the rage for 
equality, and stoops more than he need do ; in fact, he over- 



28 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XL 

does it. It is a piece of abominably bad taste (to say no 
worse) to have conferred a pension on the author of the 
Marseillaise hymn ; for what can be worse than to rake up 
the old ashes of Jacobinism, and what more necessary than 
to distinguish as much as possible this Revolution from that 
of 1789 ? Then he need not be more familiar as King than 
he ever was as Duke of Orleans, and affect the manners of a 
citizen and a plainness of dress and demeanour very suitable 
to an American President, but unbecoming a descendant of 
Louis XIV. 

The new Charter is certainly drawn up with great modera- 
tion, the few alterations which have been made approxi- 
mating it to the Spirit of the English Constitution, and in 
the whole of the proceedings the analogies of our revolution 
have been pretty closely followed. But there has been a 
remarkable deviation, which I think ominous, and I can't 
imagine how it has escaped with so little animadversion 
here. That is the cavalier manner in which the Chamber of 
Peers has been treated, for the Deputies not only assumed 
all the functions of Government and legislation, and disposed 
by their authority of the Crown without inviting the con- 
currence of the other Chamber, but at the same time they 
exercised an enormous act of authority over the Chamber of 
Peers itself in striking off the whole of that great promotion 
of Charles X., which, however unwise and perhaps uncon- 
stitutional, was perfectly legal, and those Peers had, in fact, 
as good a right to their peerages as any of their colleagues. 
They have reconstructed the Chamber of Peers, and conferred 
upon it certain rights and privileges ; but the power which 
can create can also destroy, and it must be pretty obvious 
after this that the Upper Chamber will be for the future 
nothing better than a superior Court of Judicature, depending 
for its existence upon the will of the popular branch. There 
are some articles of the old Charter which I am astonished 
at their keeping, but which they may possibly alter l at the 
revision which is to take place next year, those particularly 

1 They are altered. The first translation of the Charter which I read 
was incorrect. 



1830] POLIGNAC. 29 

which limit the entrance to the Chamber of Deputies to men 
of fort j, and which give the initiation of laws to the King. 
But on the whole it is a good sign that they should alter so 
little, and looks like extreme caution and a dislike to rapid 
and violent changes. 

In the meantime we hear nothing of the old King, who 
marches slowly on with his family. It has been reported in 
London that Polignac is here, and also that he is taken. 
Nobody knows the truth. I have heard of his behaviour, 
however, which was worthy of his former imbecility. He 
remained in the same presumptuous confidence up to the 
last moment, telling those who implored him to retract while 
it was still time that they did not know France, that he did, 
that it was essentially Royalist, and all resistance would be 
over in a day or two, till the whole ruin burst on him at 
once, when he became like a man awakened from a dream, 
utterly confounded with the magnitude of the calamity and 
as pusillanimous and miserable as he had before been blind 
and confident. It must be owned that their end has been 
worthy of the rest, for not one of them has evinced good 
feeling, or magnanimity, or courage in their fall, nor excited 
the least sympathy or commiseration. The Duke of Fitz- 
james made a good speech in the Chamber of Peers, and 
Chateaubriand a very fine one a few days before, full of 
eloquence in support of the claim of the Duke of Bordeaux 
against that of Louis Philippe I. 

In the meantime our elections here are still going against 
Government, and the signs of the times are all for reform 
and retrenchment, and against slavery. It is astonishing 
the interest the people generally take in the slavery ques- 
tion, which is the work of the Methodists, and shows the 
enormous influence they have in the country. The Duke (for 
I have not seen him) is said to be very easy about the next 
Parliament, whereas, as far as one can judge, it promises to 
be quite as unmanageable as the last, and is besides very ill 
composed — full of boys and all sorts of strange men. 

August 20th. — On Monday to Stoke; Alvanley, Fitzroy 
Somerset, Matuscewitz, Stanislas Potocki, Glengall, and Mor- 



30 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XL 

nay were there. Lady Sefton (who had dined at the Castle a 
few days before) asked the King to allow her to take Stanislas 
Potocki to see Virginia Water in a carriage, which is not 
allowed, but which his Majesty agreed to. Accordingly we 
started, and going through the private drives, went up to the 
door of the tent opposite the fishing-house. They thought it 
was the Queen corning, or at any rate a party from the Castle, 
for the man on board the little frigate hoisted all the colours, 
and the boatmen on the other side got ready the royal barge 
to take us across. We went all over the place on both sides, 
and were delighted with the luxury and beauty of the whole 
thing. On one side are a number of tents, communicating 
together in separate apartments and forming a very good 
house, a dining-room, drawing-room, and several other small 
rooms, very well furnished ; across the water is the fishing- 
cottage, beautifully ornamented, with one large room and a 
dressing-room on each side ; the kitchen and offices are in a 
garden full of flowers, shut out from everything. Opposite 
the windows is moored a large boat, in which the band used 
to play during dinner, and in summer the late King dined 
I every day either in the house or in the tents. We had 

T r^ a scarcely seen everything when Mr. Turner, the head keeper, 
/ ^ /> J^^^' <?r arrived in great haste, having spied us from the opposite side, 
,P yv>/\i*vVSnd very angry at our carriages having come there, which is 
\sj jJ&h a ^ nm g forbidden ; he did not know of our leave, nor could 

we even satisfy him that we were not to blame. 

1 ^ th ^ ie nex ^ ^ay I called on Batchelor (he was valet de 

q^a^ J chamhre to the Duke of York, afterwards to George IV.), 

n ^ r ^J^r" who has an excellent apartment in the Lodge, which, he 

JL-h V7 said, was once occupied by Nell Gwynne, though I did not 

yknow the lodge was built at that time. I was there a 

^M-r couple of hours, and heard all the details of the late King's 

Ji_^ * illness and other things. For many months before his death 

j^^^^^ihose who were about him were aware of his danger, but 

^^r* nobody dared to say a word. The King liked to cheat 

£j ApZyX- people with making them think he was well, and when he 

had been at a Council he would return to his apartments 

and tell his valets de chamhre how he had deceiyed them. 



V^ 



1830J GEOKGE IV.'S ILLNESS AND DEATH. 31 

During his illness he was generally cheerful, but occasionally 
dejected, and constantly talked of his brother the Duke of 
York, and of the similarity of their symptoms, and was 
always comparing them. He had been latterly more civil 
to Knighton than he used to be, and Knighton's attentions 
to him were incessant ; whenever he thought himself worse 
than usual, and in immediate danger, he always sent for 
Sir William. Lady Conyngham and her family went into 
his room once a day ; till his illness he always used to 
go and sit in hers. It is true that last year, when she was 
so ill, she was very anxious to leave the Castle, and it was 
Sir William Knighton who with great difficulty induced her 
to stay there. At that time she was in wretched spirits, 
and did nothing but pray from morning till night. However, 
her conscience does not seem ever to have interfered with 
her ruling passion, avarice, and she went on accumulating. 
During the last illness waggons were loaded every night and 
sent away from the Castle, but what their contents were was 
not known, at least Batchelor did not say. All Windsor knew 
this. Those servants of the King who were about his person 
had opportunities of hearing a great deal, for he used to talk 
of everybody before them, and without reserve or measure. 

This man Batchelor had become a great favourite with the 
late King. The first of his pages, William Holmes, had for 
some time been prevented by ill health from attending him. 
Holmes had been with him from a boy, and was also a great 
favourite ; by appointments and perquisites he had as much 
as 12,000Z. or 14,0002. a year, but he had spent so much in 
all sorts of debauchery and living like a gentleman that he 
was nearly ruined. There seems to have been no end to the 
tracasseries between these men ; their anxiety to get what they 
could out of the King's wardrobe in the last weeks, and their 
dishonesty in the matter, were excessive, all which he told 
me in great detail. The King was more than anybody the 
slave of habit and open to impressions, and even when he 
did not like people he continued to keep them about him 
rather than change. 

While I was at Stoke news came that Charles X. had 



32 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

arrived off Portsmouth. He has asked for an asylum in 
Austria, but when once he has landed here he will not move 
again, I dare say. The enthusiasm which the French Eevolu- 
tion produced is beginning to give way to some alarm, and 
not a little disgust at the Duke of Orleans' conduct, who 
seems anxious to assume the character of a Jacobin King, 
affecting extreme simplicity and laying aside all the pomp 
of royalty. I don't think it can do, and there is certainly 
enough to cause serious disquietude for the future. 

Sefton in the meantime told me that Brougham and 
Lord Grey were prepared for a violent opposition, and that 
they had effected a formal junction with Huskisson, being 
convinced that no Government could now be formed without 
him. I asked him if Palmerston was a party to this junction, 
and he said he was, but the first thing I heard when I got 
to town was that a negotiation is going on between Pal- 
merston and the Duke, and that the former takes every 
opportunity of declaring his goodwill to the latter, and how 
unshackled he is. Both these things can't be true, and time 
will show which is. It seems odd that Palmerston should 
abandon his party on the eve of a strong coalition, which is 
not unlikely to turn out the present Administration, but it is 
quite impossible to place any dependence upon public men 
now-a-days. There is Lord Grey with his furious opposition, 
having a little while ago supported the Duke in a sort of 
way, having advised Rosslyn to take office, and now, because 
his own vanity is hurt at not being invited to join the Govern- 
ment, or more consulted at least, upon the slight pretext of the 
Galway Bill in the last Parliament he rushes into rancorous 
opposition, and is determined to give no quarter and listen to • 
no compromise. Brougham is to lead this Opposition in the 
House of Commons, and Lord Grey in the Lords, and nothing 
is to be done but as the result of general deliberation and 
agreement. Brougham in the meantime has finished his 
triumph at York in a miserable way, having insulted Martin 
Stapylton on the hustings, who called him to account, and 
then he forgot what he had said, and slunk away with a dis- 
claimer of unintentional offence, as usual beginning with in- 



1830] CHARLES X. IN ENGLAND. 33 

temperance and ending with, submission. His speeches were 
never good, but at bis own dinner be stated so many untruths 
about the Duke of Wellington that his own partisans bawled 
out ' No, no/ and it was a complete failure. His whole 
spirit there was as bad as possible, paltry and commonplace. 
That man, with all his talents, never can or will do in any 
situation ; he is base, cowardly, and unprincipled, and with 
all the execrable judgment which, I believe, often flows from 
the perversion of moral sentiment. Nobody can admire his 
genius, eloquence, variety and extent of information, and the 
charm of his society more than I do; but his faults are 
glaring, and the effects of them manifest to anybody who 
will compare his means and their results. 

August 23rd. — General Baudrand is come over with a 
letter from King Louis Philippe to King William. He saw 
the Duke and Aberdeen yesterday. Charles X. goes to Lul- 
worth Castle. What are called moderate people are greatly 
alarmed at the aspect of affairs in France, but I think the law 
(which will be carried) of abolishing capital punishment in 
political cases is calculated to tranquillise men's minds every- 
where, for it draws such a line between the old and the new 
Ee volution. The Ministers will be tried and banished, but no 
blood spilt. Lord Anglesey went to see Charles X., and told 
him openly his opinion of his conduct. The King laid it all 
upon Polignac. The people of Paris wanted to send over a 
deputation to thank the English for their sympathy and 
assistance — a sort of fraternising affair — but the King would 
not permit it, which was wisely done, and it is a good thing 
to see that he can curb in some degree that spirit ; this 
Yaudreuil told me last night. It would have given great 
offence and caused great alarm here. 

August 2Uh. — Alvanley had a letter from Montrond 
yesterday from Paris. He was with M. Mole when a letter 
was brought him from Polignac, beginning, 'Mon cher 
Collegue,' and saying that he wrote to him to ask his 
advice what he had better do, that he should have liked to 
retire to his own estate, but it was too near Paris, that he 
should like to go into Alsace, and that he begged he would 

VOL. II. D 



34 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

arrange it for him, and in the meantime send him some 
boots, and shirts, and breeches. 

The French King continues off Cowes, many people visit- 
ing him. They came off without clothes or preparation of 
any kind, so much so that Lady Grantham has been obliged 
to furnish Mesdames de Berri and d'Angouleine with every- 
thing ; it seems they have plenty of money. The King says 
he and his son have retired from public life ; and as to his 
grandson, he must wait the progress of events ; that his con- 
science reproaches him with nothing. 

The dinner in St. George's Hall on the King's birthday 
was the finest thing possible — all good and hot, and served 
on the late King's gold plate. There were one hundred 
people at table. After dinner the King gave the Duke of 
Wellington's health, as it was the anniversary of Yimeiro ; 
the Dukes of Cumberland and Gloucester turned their 
glasses down. I can't agree with Charles X. that it would 
be better to ' travailler pour son pain than to be King of 
England.' 

I went yesterday all over Lambeth Palace, which has 
been nearly rebuilt by Blore, and admirably done; one of 
the best houses I ever saw. Archbishop Juxon's Hall has 
been converted into the library of the Palace, and is also a 
fine thing in its way. It is not to cost above 40,000?. The 
Lollards' Tower, which is very curious with its iron rings, and 
the names of the Lollards written on the walls, is not to be 
touched. 

At night. — Went to Lady Glengall's to meet Marmont. 
He likes talking of his adventures, but he had done his Paris 
talk before I got there ; however, he said a great deal about 
old campaigning and Buonaparte, which, as well as I recol- 
lect, I will put down. 

As to the battle of Salamanca, he remarked that, without 
meaning to detract from the glory of the English arms, he 
was inferior in force there ; our army was provided with every- 
thing, well paid, and the country favourable, his ' denuee de 
tout,' without pay, in a hostile country ; that all his provi- 
sions came from a great distance and under great escorts, 



1830] CONVEKSATION WITH MAKSHAL MARMONT, 35 

and his communications were kept up in the same way. Of 
Russia, he said that Buonaparte's army was destroyed by the 
time he got to Moscow, destroyed by famine ; that there were 
two ways of making war, by slow degrees with magazines, 
or by rapid movements and reaching places where abundant 
means of supply and reorganisation were to be found, as he 
had done at Vienna and elsewhere, but in Eussia supplies were 
not to be had. Napoleon had, however, pushed on with the 
same rapidity and destroyed his army. Marshal Davoust (I 
think, but am not sure) had a corps d'armee of 80,000 men 
and reached Moscow with 15,000 ; the cavalry were 50,000 
sabres, at Moscow they were 6,000. Somebody asked him 
if Napoleon's generals had not dissuaded him from going to 
Russia. Marmont said no ; they liked it ; but Napoleon ought 
to have stopped at Smolensk, made Poland independent, and 
levied 50,000 Cossacks, the Polish Cossacks being better than 
the Russian, who would have kept all his communications 
clear, and allowed the French army to repose, and then he 
Avould have done in two campaigns what he wished to accom- 
plish in one; instead of which he never would deal with 
Poland liberally, but held back with ulterior views, and never 
got the Poles cordially with him. Of the campaign of 1813 he 
said that it was ill conducted by Napoleon and full of faults ; 
his creation of the army was wonderful, and the battle of 
Dresden would have been a great movement if he had not 
suddenly abandoned Yaiidamme after pushing him on to cut 
off the retreat of the Allies. It was an immense fault to 
leave all the garrisons in the Prussian and Saxon fortresses. 
The campaign of 1814 was one of his most brilliant. He 
(Marmont) commanded a corps d'armee, and fought in most 
of the celebrated actions, but he never had 4,000 men ; at 
Paris, which he said was ' the most honourable part of his 
whole career,' he had 7,500. 1 Napoleon committed a great 
fault in throwing himself into the rear as he did ; he should 
have fallen back upon Paris, where his own presence would 

1 [This assertion of Marmont's is the more curious as it was to his 
alleged treachery that Napoleon when at Fontainebleau chose to ascribe his 
defeat.] 



36 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XI. 

liave been of vast importance, and sent Marmont into the 
rear with what troops he conld collect. I repeated what the 
Duke of Wellington had once told me, that if the Emperor 
had continued the same plan, and fallen back on Paris, he 
would have obliged the Allies to retreat, and asked him what 
he thought. He rather agreed with this, but said the Emperor 
had conceived one of the most splendid pieces of strategy 
that ever had been devised, which failed by the disobedience 
of Eugene. He sent orders to Eugene to assemble his army, in 
which he had 35,000 French troops, to amuse the Austrians 
by a negotiation for the evacuation of Italy ; to throw the 
Italian troops into Alessandria and Mantua ; to destroy the 
other fortresses, and going by forced marches with his French 
troops, force the passage of Mont Cenis, collect the scattered 
corps d'armee of Augereau (who was near Lyons) and another 
French general, which would have made his force amount to 
above 60,000 men, and burst upon the rear of the Allies so 
as to cut off all their communications. These orders he sent 
to Eugene, but Eugene ' revait d'etre roi d'ltalie apres sa 
chute,' and he sent his aide-de-camp Tascher to excuse him- 
self. The movement was not made, and the game was up. 
Lady Dudley Stewart was there, Lucien's daughter and 
Buonaparte's niece. Marmont was presented to her, and she 
heard him narrate all this ; there is something very simple, 
striking, and soldierlike in his manner and appearance. He 
is going to Russia. 

He was very communicative about events at Paris, 
lamented his own ill-luck, involved in the business against 
his wishes and feelings ; he disapproved of Polignac and his 
measures, and had no notion the ordonnances were thought of. 
In the morning he was going to St. Germain for the day ; 
when his aide-de-camp brought him the newspaper with the 
ordonnances il tomba de son haut. Soon after the Dauphin 
sent to him to desire that, as there might be some 
6 vitres cassees,' he would take the command of the troops. 
Directly after the thing began. He had 7,000 or 8,000 men ; 
not a preparation had been made of any sort ; they had never 
thought of resistance, had not consulted Marmont or any 



1830] CRADOCK'S MISSION TO CHARLES X. 37 

military man ; lie soon found how hopeless the case was, 
and sent eight estafettes to the King one after another 
during the action to tell him so and implore him to stop 
while it was time. They never returned any answer. He 
then rode out to St. Cloud, where he implored the King to 
yield. It was not till after seven hours' pressing that he 
consented to name M. de Mortemart Minister, but would not 
withdraw the edicts. He says that up to Wednesday night 
they would have compromised and accepted M. de Mortemart 
and the suppression of the edicts, but the King still de- 
murred. On Wednesday night he yielded, but then the com- 
munications were interrupted. That night the meeting at 
the Palais Royal took place, at which the King's fate was 
determined; and on Thursday morning when his offers 
arrived, it was too late, and they would no longer treat. 
Marmont said he had been treated with the greatest ingrati- 
tude by the Court, and had taken leave of them for ever, 
coldly of the King and Dauphin ; the Duchess of Berri alone 
shook hands with him and thanked him for his services and 
fidelity. He says never man was so unlucky, that he was 
marechal de quartier and could not refuse to serve, but he 
only acted on the defensive ; 2,000 of the troops and 1,500 
of the populace were killed. The Swiss did not behave well, 
but the Lanciers de la Garde beautifully, and all the troops 
were acting against their feelings and opinions. Marmont 
said that Stuart had sent Cradock to Charles X. to desire 
he would go as slowly as he could, to give time for a reaction 
which he expected would take place. Cradock did go to the 
King, but I rather doubt this story. 1 

1 [Colonel Cradock (the late Lord Howden) was sent by the Am- 
bassador to the King, and had an audience at Ranibouillet, but it was at 
the request and instigation of the Duke of Orleans. The proposal entrusted 
to Colonel Cradock was to the effect that the King and the Dauphin, having 
abdicated, should quit France with the Princesses, but that Henry V. should 
be proclaimed Kiug under the regency of the Duke of Orleans. Louis 
Philippe offered to support this arrangement, and to carry on the Government 
as Regent, if Charles X. sanctioned it. The King received the communi- 
cation in bed. The Duchess of Angouleme was consulted, and vehemently 
opposed the scheme, because, said she, speaking of the Orleans family, ' ils 
sont toujours les memes,' and she referred to the preposterous stories current 



38 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. . [Chap. XI. 

August 27 th. — At Court the day before yesterday; Par- 
liament was prorogued and summoned. General Baudrand 
came afterwards and delivered his letter, also a private letter 
c from the Duke of Orleans to the Duke of Clarence ' — as the 
French King called them, 'anciens amis.' He was well 
received and well satisfied. I never knew such a burst of 
indignation and contempt as Polignac's letter has caused — 
a letter to the President of the Chamber of Peers. As Dudley 
says, it has saved history the trouble of crucifying that man, 
and speaks volumes about the recent events. Such a man to 
have been Prim e Minister of France for a year ! 

August 29th. — Dined with Dudley the day before yester- 
day to meet Marmont, who is made very much of here by the 
few people who are left. He had been to Woolwich in the 
morning, where the Duke of Wellington had given orders 
that everything should be shown to him, and the honours 
handsomely done. He was very much gratified, and he 
found the man who had pointed the gun which wounded 
him at Salamanca, and who had since lost his own arm at 
Waterloo. Marmont shook hands with him and said, ' Ah, 
mon ami, chacun a son tour.' Lady Aldborough came in 
in the evening, and flew up to him with 'Ah, mon cher 
Marechal, embrassez-moi; ' and so after escaping the cannon's 
mouth at Paris, he was obliged to face Lady Aldborough's 
mouth here. This was my first dinner at Dudley's, brought 
about malgre lui by Lady Glengall. He has always disliked 
and never invited me, but now (to all appearance) we are 
friends. He said he had been to see an old man who lives 
near the world's end — Chelsea — who is 110 years old; he has 
a good head of hair, with no grey hairs in it ; his health, 
faculties, and memory perfect ; is Irish, and has not lived 
with greater temperance than other people. I sat next to 
Palmerston, and had a great deal of conversation with him, 
and from the tenour of his language infer that he has no 

at the time of the death of the Due de Bourgogne, and the regency of 1715. 
The offer was therefore rejected. These facts were not known to Mr. 
Greville at the time, nor till long afterwards, but they confirm his informa- 
tion that ' Cradock did go to the King.'] 



1830] DINNER AT LORD DUDLEY'S. 39 

idea of joining Government. Agar Ellis assured me the 
other day that there was not a word of truth in the reported 
junction between Lord Grey and Huskisson. The Duke has 
got two months to make his arrangements, but I am afraid he 
is not prepared for all the sacrifices his position requires. 
It is now said that the exasperation against the late Ministers 
(particularly Polignac) is so great in France that it is doubt- 
ful whether they will be able to save their lives. 



40 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 



CHAPTER XII. 

The Belgian Ke volution — The Duke of Wellington and Canning— The 
King's Plate — Gloomy Forebodings — Retreat of the Prince of Orange — 
Prince Talleyrand — Position of the Government — Death of Huskisson — 
His Character — The Duke of Wellington and Peel — Meeting of Parlia- 
ment — The Duke's Declaration — The King's Visit to the City aban- 
doned — Disturbances in London — Duchesse de Dino — The Cholera — 
Southey, Henry Taylor, John Stuart Mill — Dinner at Talleyrand's — The 
Duke of Wellington resigns — Mr. Bathurst made Junior Clerk of the 
Council — Lord Spencer and Lord Grey sent for — Formation of Lord 
Grey's Administration — Discontent of Brougham — Brougham takes the 
Great Seal — Character of the New Ministers — Prospects of the Oppo- 
sition — Disturbances in Sussex and Hampshire — Lord Grey and Lord 
Brougham — Lord Sefton's Dinner — The New Ministers sworn at a 
Council. 

Stoke, August 31st. — On Sunday I met Prince Esterhazy * 
in Oxford Street with a face a yard long. He turned back 
with me, and told me that there had been disturbances at 
Brussels, but that they had been put down by the gen- 
darmerie. He was mightily alarmed, but said that his 
Government would recognise the French King directly, and 
in return for such general and prompt recognition as he was 
receiving he must restrain Prance from countenancing re- 
volutions in other countries, and that, indeed, he had lost 
no time in declaring his intention to abstain from any 
meddling. In the evening Yaudreuil told me the same 
thing, and that he had received a despatch from M. Mole 
desiring him to refuse passports to the Spaniards who 
wanted, on the strength of the French Revolution, to go 
and foment the discontents in Spain, and to all other 

1 [Prince Paul Esterhazy, Austrian Ambassador at the Court of St. 
James for many years.] 



WELLINGTON'S FOREIGN POLICY. 41 

foreigners who, being dissatisfied with, their own Govern- 
ments, could not obtain passports from their own Ministers. 
Yesterday morning, however, it appeared that the affair at 
Brussels was much more serious than Esterhazy had given 
me to understand; and, as far as can be judged from the 
unofficial statements which we have, it appears likely that 
Belgium will separate from Holland altogether, it being very 
doubtful whether the Belgian troops will support the King's 
Government. 

Madame de Falck is just come, but brings no news. 
Falck ! has heard nothing. He left Holland before the out- 
break. In the event of such a revolution, it remains to be 
seen what part Prussia will take, and, if she marches an 
army to reduce Belgium to obedience, whether the Belgians 
will not make overtures to France, and in that case whether 
King Louis Philippe will be able to restrain the French from 
seizing such a golden opportunity of regaining their former 
frontier ; and if they accept the offer, whether a general war 
in Europe will not ensue. 

In these difficult circumstances, and in the midst of pos- 
sibilities so tremendous, it is awful to reflect upon the very 
moderate portion of wisdom and sagacity which is allotted 
to those by whom our affairs are managed. I am by no 
means easy as to the Duke of Wellington's sufficiency to 
meet such difficulties ; the habits of his mind are not those 
of patient investigation, profound knowledge of human 
nature, and cool, discriminating sagacity. He is exceedingly 
quick of apprehension, but deceived by his own quickness 
into thinking he knows more than he does. He has amaz- 
ing confidence in himself, which is fostered by the deference 
of those around him and the long experience of his military 
successes. He is upon ordinary occasions right-headed and 
sensible, but he is beset by weaknesses and passions which 
must, and continually do, blind his judgment. Above all he 
wants that suavity of manner, that watchfulness of obser- 
vation, that power of taking great and enlarged views of 
events and characters, and of weighing opposite interests 
1 [Baron Falck, Dutch Minister at the Court of St. James.] 



42 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

and probabilities, which are essentially necessary in circum- 
stances so delicate, and in which one false step, any hasty 
measure, or even incautious expression, may be attended with 
consequences of immense importance. I feel justified in this 
view of his political fitness by contemplating the whole 
course of his career, and the signal failure which has marked 
all his foreign policy. If Canning were now alive we might 
hope to steer through these difficulties, but if he had lived 
we should probably never have been in them. He was the 
only statesman who had sagacity to enter into and com- 
prehend the spirit of the times, and to put himself at the 
head of that movement which was no longer to be arrested. 
The march of Liberalism (as it is called) would not be 
stopped, and this he knew, and he resolved to govern and 
lead instead of opposing it. The idiots who so rejoiced at 
the removal of this master mind (which alone could have 
saved them from the effects of their own folly) thought to 
stem the torrent in its course, and it has overwhelmed them. 
It is unquestionable that the Duke has too much participated 
in their sentiments and passions, and, though he never mixed 
himself with their proceedings, regarded them with a favour- 
able e} r e, nor does he ever seem to have been aware of the 
immensity of the peril which they were incurring. The 
urgency of the danger will unquestionably increase the im- 
patience of those who already think the present Government 
incapable of carrying on the public business, and now that 
we are placed in a situation the most intricate (since the 
French Revolution) it is by no means agreeable to think that 
such enormous interests are at the mercy of the Duke's 
awkward squad. 

Sefton gave me an account of the dinner in St. George's 
Hall on the King's birthday, which was magnificent — ex- 
cellent and well served. Bridge x came down with the plate, 
and was hid during the dinner behind the great wine-cooler, 
which weighs 7,000 ounces, and he told Sefton afterwards that 
the plate in the room was worth 200,000Z. There is another 

1 [Of the house of Rundell and Bridge, the great silversmiths and 
jewellers of the day.] 



1830] GLOOMY FOEEBOD1NGS. 43 

service of gold plate, winch was not used at all. The King 
has made it all over to the Crown, All this plate was 
ordered by the late King, and never used ; his delight was 
ordering what the public had to pay for. 

September 9th. — Came from Stoke the day after the 
Egham races, and went to Brocket Hall on Saturday last ; 
returned the day before yesterday. Nothing can exceed the 
interest, the excitement, the consternation which prevail 
here. On Saturday last the funds suddenly fell near three 
per cent. ; no cause apparent, a thousand reports, and a panic 
on the Stock Exchange. At last on Monday it appeared 
that the Emperor of Eussia had, on the first intelligence of 
the revolution in France, prohibited the tricoloured cockade 
and ordered all Russian subjects to quit France. As we 
went down on Saturday Henry told me that there had been 
alarming accounts from the manufacturing districts of a 
disposition to rise on the part of the workmen, which had 
kept Lord Hill in town ; and this I fancied was the cause of 
the fall, but it was the Eussian business. They have since, 
however, rallied to nearly what they were before. At Brocket 
I had a long conversation with my brother-in-law, 1 who is 
never very communicative or talkative, but he takes a 
gloomy view of everything, not a little perhaps tinctured by 
the impending ruin which he foresees to his own property 
from the Liverpool Railroad, which is to be opened with great 
ceremony on the 15th ; moreover he thinks the Government 
so weak that it cannot stand, and expects the Duke will be 
compelled to resign. He has already offered him his place, 
to dispose of in any way that may be useful to him. I said 
that I thought one of the Duke's greatest misfortunes was 
his having no wise head to consult with in all emergencies ; 
this he said was very true, for there was nobody who 
would even speak to him about anything; that Peel, who 

1 [Lord Francis Egerton, afterwards First Earl of Ellesmere, proprietor 
of the Bridgewater Estates and Canal, which was threatened by the com- 
petition of the newly-made Liverpool and Manchester Railway. Lord 
Francis held the office of Secretary at War in 1830 for a very short time, 
having previously been Irish Secretary when Lord Anglesey was Lord 
Lieutenant.] 



44 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

was the man who might naturally be expected to put him- 
self forward, never would ; and that repeatedly he had got 
him (Francis) to go to or write to the Duke about some 
matter or other on which it was necessary to refer to him. 
In the business of Huskisson, Huskisson himself was most 
anxious to have it made up, arid wished Peel to speak to the 
Duke; but Peel would not stir, nor would Dudley, and it 
ended in Francis' being charged with the negotiation, the 
result of which everybody knows. 

In the meantime the affairs of Belgium are in a very 
critical state; the Prince of Orange has entirely failed in 
reducing the malcontents to submission, and after passing 
two or three days at or near Brussels in fruitless negotiation 
and the interchange of proud civilities, he was obliged to 
retire and carry back to the King a proposal that Belgium 
and Holland should be separated and a Federal Union 
established between them. Last night, however, a proclama- 
tion of the King appeared, well drawn up, and couched in 
firm, temperate, and sensible language, in which he declares 
that he will do all that the circumstances of the case may 
render necessary, but that all shall be referred to the States- 
General, and they shall decide upon the measures to be 
adopted. This will probably excite great discontent, and it 
is at least doubtful whether the Belgian Deputies will con- 
sent to go to the Hague at all. My belief is that this pro- 
clamation is the result of encouragement from Prussia. 

The night before last I had a letter from the Due de 
Dalberg with a very sensible view of the state of France and 
of affairs generally in Europe, auguring well of the stability 
of the present Government, provided the other Powers of 
Europe do nothing to disturb the general tranquillit} 1 ". I 
never was so astonished as when I read in the newspaper of 
the appointment of Talleyrand to be Ambassador here. He 
must be nearer eighty than seventy, and though his faculties 
are said to be as bright as ever (which I doubt), his infirmi- 
ties are so great that it is inconceivable he should think of 
leaving his own home, and above all for another country, 
where public representation is unavoidable. Dalberg told 



1830] BAD PKOSPECTS OF THE SESSION. 45 

me that several of the Ministers are going out — Guizot, 
Marshal Gerard, and Baron Louis, the two latter accables 
with the travail, and the first unused to and unfit for official 
business 5 1 Louis is seventy- three. 

In the meantime the Duke does nothing here towards 
strengthening his Government, and he will probably meet 
Parliament as he is. There are some circumstances in his 
favour, and I think it possible he may still extricate himself 
from his difficulties. There is unquestionably a notion 
amongst many persons (of the aristocracy) that he is the 
only man to rely upon for governing this country in the 
midst of difficulties. It is hard to say upon what this feeling 
(for it is more of a feeling than an opinion) is founded ; not 
certainly upon any experience of his abilities for Government 
either as to principles or the details of particular branches 
of business, or his profound, dispassionate, and statesmanlike 
sagacity, but upon certain vague predilections, and the con- 
fidence which he has infused into others by his own firm, 
manly, and even dictatorial character, and the recollection 
of his military exploits and splendid career, which have not 
yet lost their power over the minds of men, and to this 
must be added his great influence over the late and present 
sovereigns. 

The short session which will begin on the 26th of 
October will be occupied with the Regency and Civil List, 
and it is probable that both those matters will be produced 
in a form to give general satisfaction ; that will be strength 
as far as it goes. The Tories are alarmed at the general 
aspect of affairs, and I doubt whether they will not forget 
their ancient grievances and antipathies, and, if they do not 
support the Government, abstain at least from any violent 
opposition, the result of which could only be to let in the 
Whigs, of whose principles they have the greatest apprehen- 
sions. I can perfectly understand that there may be many 
men who, wishing sincerely to see a stronger Government 

1 [A curious estimate, taken at the time, of the man who for the next 
eighteen years had a larger share of official life and business than any other 
Frenchman.] 



46 HEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

formed, may think that any change at this moment which 
may present to Europe a spectacle of disunion and weakness 
here would be a greater evil than the temporary toleration 
of such Ministers as ours ; and if the Duke does find such 
a disposition, and profits by it dexterously and temperately, 
he may float through the next session, and at the end of it 
negotiate with other parties on more advantageous terms 
than he possibly could do now, when all his concessions 
would appear to be extorted by force or by the urgent diffi- 
culties of his position. 

September 10th. — The Duke is very much disturbed about 
the state of affairs, thinks ill of France and generally of the 
state of Europe. I think the alarmists are increasing every- 
where, and the signs of the times are certainly portentous ; 
still I doubt there being any great desire of change among 
the mass of the people of England, and prudent and dexterous 
heads (if there be any such) may still steer on through the 
storm. If Canning were alive I believe he would have been 
fully equal to the emergency if he was not thwarted by the 
passions, prejudices, and follies of others ; but if he had lived 
we should not have had the Catholic question settled, and 
what a state we should be in now if that were added to the rest ! 

September 14th. — Last Saturday to Panshanger; re- 
turned yesterday with Melbourne, George Lamb, and the 
Ashleys. George said there would be a violent Opposition 
in the approaching session. William 1 told me he thought 
Huskisson was the greatest practical statesman he had 
known, the one who united theory with practice the most, 
but owned he was not popular and not thought honest : 
that his remaining in with the Duke when Goderich's 
Ministry was dissolved was a fatal error, which he could 
never repair. 

I found Sefton in town last night, and went to the play 
with him. He has had a letter from Brougham, who told 
him he should go to the Liverpool dinner and attack the 
Duke of Wellington ; that it was the only opportunity he 
should ever have in his life of meeting him face to face, and 

1 ["William Lamb, second Lord Melbourne, afterwards Prime Minister.] 



1830] DEATH OF 3IK. HUSKISSON. 47 

lie then proceeded to relate all that lie should say. Sefton 
wrote him word that if he said half what he intended the chair- 
man would order him to be turned out of the room. He won't 
go, I am persuaded. 

Newark, September 18th. — Went back to Panshanger last 
Tuesday ; found there Madame de Lieven, Melbourne, and 
the Hollands and Allen. Lord Holland was very agreeable, as 
he always is, and told many anecdotes of George Selwyn, 
Lafayette, and others. I saw them arrive in a coach-and- 
four and chaise-and-pair — two footmen, a page, and two maids. 
He said (what is true) that there is hardly such a thing in the 
world as a good house or a good epitaph, and yet mankind 
have been employed in building the former and writing the 
latter since the beginning almost. Came to town on Thurs- 
day, and in the afternoon heard the news of Huskisson's 
horrible accident, and yesterday morning got a letter from 
Henry with the details, which are pretty correctly given in 
the c Times ' newspaper. It is a very odd thing, but I had 
for days before a strong presentiment that some terrible 
accident would occur at this ceremony, and I told Lady 
Cowper so, and several other people. Eothing could exceed 
the horror of the few people in London at this event, 
or the despair of those who looked up to him politically. 
It seems to have happened in this way : — While the Duke's 
car was stopping to take in water, the people alighted and 
walked about the railroad ; when suddenly another car, which 
was running on the adjoining level, came up. Everybody 
scrambled out of the way, and those who could got again 
into the first car. This Huskisson attempted to do, but he 
was slow and awkward ; as he was getting in some part of 
the machinery of the other car struck the door of his, by 
which he was knocked down. He was taken up, and con- 
veyed by Wilton * and Mrs. Huskisson (who must have seen 
the accident happen) to the house of Mr. Blackburne, eight 
miles from Heaton. Wilton saved his life for a few hours by 
knowing how to tie up the artery; amputation was not 
possible, and he expired at ten o'clock that night. Wilton, 
1 [Thomas Grosvenor Egerton, second Earl of Wilton.] 



48 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

Lord Granville, and Littleton were with him to the last. 
Mrs. Huskisson behaved with great courage. The Duke of 
Wellington was deeply affected, and it was with the greatest 
difficulty he could be induced to proceed upon the progress to 
Manchester, and at last he only yielded to the most pressing 
solicitations of the directors and others, and to a strong re- 
monstrance that the mob might be dangerous if he did not 
appear. It is impossible to figure to one's self any event 
which could produce a greater sensation or be more striking 
to the imagination than this, happening at such a time and 
under such circumstances : the eminence of the man, the 
sudden conversion of a scene of gaiety and splendour into 
one of horror and dismay ; the countless multitudes present, 
and the effect upon them — crushed to death in sight of his 
wife and at the feet (as it was) of his great political rival — 
all calculated to produce a deep and awful impression. The 
death of Huskisson cannot fail to have an important effect 
upon political events ; it puts an end to his party as a party, 
but it leaves the survivors at liberty to join either the Oppo- 
sition or the Government, while during his life there were 
great difficulties to their doing either, in consequence of the 
antipathy which many of the Whigs had to him on one side 
and the Duke of Wellington on the other. There is no use, 
however, in speculating on what will happen, which a very 
short time will show. 

Agar Ellis told me yesterday morning that he had 
received a letter from Brougham a day or two ago, in which 
he said that he was going to Liverpool, and hoped there to 
sign a treaty with Huskisson, so that it is probable they 
would have joined to oppose the Government. As to the 
Duke of Wellington, a fatality attends him, and it is perilous 
to cross his path. There were perhaps 500,000 people 
present on this occasion, and probably not a soul besides 
hurt. One man only is killed, and that man is his . most 
dangerous political opponent, the one from whom he had 
most to fear. It is the more remarkable because these great 
people are generally taken such care of, and put out of the 
chance of accidents. Canning had scarcely reached the 



1830] CHAEACTEE OF HUSKISSON. 49 

zenith of his power when he was swept away, and the field 
was left open to the Duke, and no sooner is he reduced 
to a state of danger and difficulty than the ablest of his 
adversaries is removed by a chance beyond all power of 
calculation. 

Huskisson was about sixty years old, tall, slouching, and 
ignoble-looking. In society he was extremely agreeable, 
without much animation, generally cheerful, with a great 
deal of humour, information, and anecdote, gentlemanlike, 
unassuming, slow in speech, and with a downcast look, as if 
he avoided meeting anybody's gaze. I have said what Mel- 
bourne thought of him, and that was the opinion of his 
party. It is probably true that there is no man in Parlia- 
ment, or perhaps out of it, so well versed in finance, com- 
merce, trade, and colonial matters, and that he is therefore a 
very great and irreparable loss. It is nevertheless remarkable 
that it is only within the last five or six years that he acquired 
the great reputation which he latterly enjoyed. I do not 
think he was looked upon as more than a second-rate man 
till his speeches on the silk trade and the shipping interest ; 
but when he became President of the Board of Trade he devoted 
himself with indefatigable application to the maturing and 
reducing to practice those commercial improvements with 
which his name is associated, and to which he owes all his 
glory and most of his unpopularity. It is equally true that 
all the ablest men in the country coincide with him, and that 
the mass of the community are persuaded that his plans are 
mischievous to the last degree. The man whom he consulted 
through the whole course of his labours and enquiries was 
Hume, 1 who is now in the Board of Trade, and whose vast ex- 
perience and knowledge were of incalculable service to him. 
Great as his abilities unquestionably were, it is impossible to 
admire his judgment, which seems repeatedly to have failed 
him, particularly in his joining the Duke's Government on 
Goderich's resignation, which was a capital error, his speech 
afterwards at Liverpool and his subsequent quarrel with the 

1 [John Deacon Hume, the Assistant Joint Secretary of the Board of 
Trade.] 

VOL. II. E 



50 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

Duke. In all these cases lie acted with the greatest impru- 
dence, and he certainly contrived, without exposing himself 
to any specific charge, to be looked upon as a statesman of 
questionable honour and integrity ; and of this his friends as 
well as his enemies were aware. As a speaker in the House of 
Commons he was luminous upon his own subject, but he had 
no pretensions to eloquence; his voice was feeble and his 
manner ungraceful ; however, he was (unfortunately) one of 
the first men in the House, and was listened to with atten- 
tion upon any subject. He left no children. Mrs. Huskisson 
has a pension of 1,2002. a year. The accounts from Paris 
improve, inasmuch as there seems a better prospect than 
there has been lately of tranquillity in the country. Sneyd 
writes word that there is little doubt but that the Due de 
Bourbon was assassinated. 1 

Last night to Brockett Hall, where I slept and came on 
here to-day. The King has paid me 300?. for Goodison, the 
late Duke's jockey, which settles all he owed at Newmarket, 
and was a very good-natured act. 

George Seymour is made Master of the Robes, and gives 
up his place 2 in the House of Lords, so Jersey 3 within two 
months has got an enormous place to give away. 

Chatsworth, September 27th. — Got to Sprotborough last 
Sunday; Lord Talbot and Lady Cecil, William Lascelles, 
Irby, Lady Charlotte Denison, Captain Grey. It rained 
all the time of the races. They offered Priam to Chesterfield 
for 3,000Z. before his match, and he refused ; he offered it 
after, and they refused. There were a number of beautiful 
women there — my cousin Mrs. Foljambe, Misses Mary and 
Fanny Brandling the best. Came here on Friday night, and 

1 [The Due de Bourbon-Conde' was found hanging in his bedroom. 
Suspicion pointed to Madame de Fencheres, his mistress, as privy to the 
cause of his death, which however, was never clearly ascertained. The 
Duke had made an ample provision for Madame de Fencheres in his will, 
but the bulk of his vast property, including Chantilly, was bequeathed to 
the Due d'Aumale, fourth son of King Louis Philippe. The Due de Bour- 
bon was the father of the unfortunate Due d'Enghien.] 

2 He did not give it up ; wanted Jersey to appoint his brother Frederick, 
which he refused to do; so the other remained. — November 15th. 

3 [Lord Jersey was Lord Chamberlain of the Household at the time.] 






1830] HUSKISSON'S LAST MOMENTS. 51 

found as usual a large party, but rather dull ; Granvilles, 
Newboroughs, Wharncliffes, G. Seymours, Sir J. and Lady 
Fitzgerald (very pretty), Talbots, Madame Bathiany, Beau- 
monts, G. Lamb. Yesterday Brougham came with his 
brother, sister, and daughter-in-law, in the highest spirits and 
state of excitement, going about Yorkshire, dining and 
speechifying ; he was at Doncaster too. Lord Granville was 
just returned from Huskisson's funeral at Liverpool. It was 
attended by a great multitude, who showed every mark of 
respect and feeling. He died the death of a great man, 
suffering torments, but always resigned, calm, and collected ; 
took the Sacrament, and made a codicil to his will, said the 
country had had the best of him, and that he could not have 
been useful for many more years, hoped he had never com- 
mitted any political sins that might not be easily forgiven, 
and declared that he died without a feeling of ill-will and 
in charity with all men. As he lay there he heard the guns 
announcing the Duke of Wellington's arrival at Manchester, 
and he said, ' I hope to God the Duke may get safe through 
the day.' When he had done and said all he desired, he 
begged they would open a vein and release him from his 
pain. From the beginning he only wished to die quickly. 
Mrs. Huskisson was violently opposed to his being buried at 
Liverpool, and it was with great difficulty she was persuaded 
to consent to the repeated applications that were made to her 
for that purpose. 

Buckenham, October 26th. — A. month nearly since I have 
written a line ; always racing and always idleness. Went 
from Chatsworth to Heaton Park ; an immense party, ex- 
cellent house and living, and very good sport for the sort of 
thing in a park, with gentlemen riders. 

I have lost sight of politics, and know nothing of what is 
going on, except that all things look gloomy, and people 
generally are alarmed. Last week the Arbuthnots were at 
Cheveley, and I had a curious conversation enough with him. 
I told him that I was desirous of the success of the Duke of 
Wellington's Administration, but felt strongly the necessity 
of his getting rid of many of his present Cabinet, who were 

E 2 



52 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

both inefficient and odious, that I thought one great mis- 
fortune was that he had nobody to tell him the truth, and 
very few men with whom he was on terms of confidential 
cordiality. He owned it was so, but said that he never con- 
cealed from him disagreeable truths — on the contrary, told 
him everything — and assured me that at any time he would 
tell the Duke anything that I thought he ought to know. I 
told him to give him a notion how meanly Aberdeen was 
thought of, that Alvanley had told Talleyrand not to notice 
him, but to go at once to the Duke when he had any im- 
portant business to transact, and that he might tell the Duke 
this if he pleased, but no one else. He said he would, and 
then he began to talk of Peel, lamenting that there was 
nothing like intimate confidence between the Duke and him, 
and that the Duke was in fact ignorant of his real and secret 
feelings and opinions ; that to such a degree did Peel carry 
his reserve, that when they were out of office, and it bad 
been a question of their returning to it, he had gone to meet 
Peel at Lord Chandos's for the express purpose of finding 
out what his opinions were upon the then state of affairs, 
and that after many conversations he had come away 
knowing no more of his sentiments and disposition than 
before they met. I said that with a Cabinet like this, and 
the House of Commons in the hands of Peel, I could not 
imagine anything more embarrassing; he owned it was, 
and then complained of Peel's indisposition to encourage 
other men in the House of Commons, or to suffer the trans- 
action of business to pass through any hands but his own ; 
that the Duke had been accused of a grasping ambition and 
a desire to do everything himself, whereas such an accusation 
would be much more applicable to Peel. All this proves how 
little real cordiality there is between these two men, and that, 
though they are now necessary to each other, a little matter 
would sever their political connection. 

Here we have an American of the name of Powell, who 
was here nineteen years ago, when he was one of the hand- 
somest men that ever was seen, and lived in the society 
of Devonshire House. Three years of such a life spoilt 



1830] WELLINGTON'S DECLARATION AGAINST REFORM. 53 

him, as he confesses, for the nineteen which followed in his 
native country ; and now he is come back with a wife 
and five children to see the town he recollects become a 
thousand times more beautiful; and the friends who have 
forgotten him equally changed, but as much for the worse 
as London is for the better ; he seems a sensible, good sort 
of fellow. 

Baring told me the other day that he remembered his 
(B.'s) father with nearly nothing, and that out of the house 
which he founded not less than six or seven millions must 
have been taken. Several colossal fortunes have been made 
out of it. 

London, November Sth. — Went from Buckenham to 
Eustou, and then back to Newmarket, where I never have 
time or inclination to write or read. Parliament met, and a 
great; clamour was raised against the King's Speech, without 
much reason; but it was immediately evident that the 
Government was in a very tottering condition, and the first 
night of this session the Duke of Wellington made a violent 
and uncalled-for declaration against Eeform, which has with- 
out doubt sealed his fate. Never was there an act of more 
egregious folly, or one so universally condemned by friends 
and foes. The Chancellor said to Lady Lyndhurst after the 
first night's debate in the House of Lords, ' You have often 
asked me why the Duke did not take in Lord Grey ; read 
these two speeches (Lord Grey's and the Duke's), and then 
you will see why. Do you think he would like to have a 
colleague under him, who should get up and make such a 
speech after such another as his ? ' 

The effect produced by this declaration exceeds anything 
I ever saw, and it has at once destroyed what little popu- 
larity the Duke had left, and lowered him in public estimation 
so much that when he does go out of office, as most 
assuredly he must, he will leave it without any of the dignity 
and credit which might have accompanied his retirement. 
The sensation produced in the country has not yet been 
ascertained, but it is sure to be immense. I came to town 
last night, and found the town ringing with his imprudence 



54 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

and everybody expecting that a few days would produce his 
resignation. 

The King's visit to the City was regarded with great 
apprehension, as it was suspected that attempts would be 
made to produce riot and confusion at night, and con- 
sequently all the troops that could be mustered were pre- 
pared, together with thousands of special constables, new 
police, volunteers, sailors, and marines ; but last night a 
Cabinet Council was held, when it was definitively arranged 
to put it off altogether, and this morning the announce- 
ment has appeared in the newspapers. Every sort of ridicule 
and abuse was heaped upon the Government, the Lord 
Mayor, and all who had any share in putting off the 
King's visit to the City; very droll caricatures were cir- 
culated, 

I met Matuscewitz last night, who was full of the Duke 
and his speech, arid of regrets at his approaching fall, which 
he considers as the signal for fresh encroachments in France 
by the Liberal party, and a general impulse to the revolu- 
tionary factions throughout Europe. I hear that nothing 
can exceed the general excitement and terror that prevails, 
everybody feeling they hardly know what. 

November 9th. — Yesterday morning I sallied forth and 
called on Arbuthnot, whom I did not find at home, but Mrs. 
Arbuthnot was. I had previously called on the Yilliers, and 
had a long conversation about the state of everything. They 
did not apprise me of anything new, but Hyde, 1 who ought 
to be informed, gave me an account of the resolutions which 
Brougham means to propose, very different from what I heard 
elsewhere. He said that they were very strong, whereas all 
other accounts agree that they are very moderate. I walked 
with Mrs. Arbuthnot down to Downing Street, and, as she 
utters the Duke's sentiments, was anxious to hear what she 
would say about their present condition. I said, c Well, you 
are in a fine state ; what do you mean to do ? ' ' Oh, are you 
alarmed ? Well, I am not ; everybody says we are to go 

1 [Thomas Hyde Villiers, brother of George, afterwards fourth Earl of 
Clarendon, died in 1832.] 



1830] DISTURBANCES IN LONDON. 55 

out, and I don't believe a word of it. They will be beat on 
the question of Reform; people will return to the Government, 
and we shall go on very well. You will see this will be the 
end of it.' I told her I did not believe they could stay in, 
and attacked the Duke's speech, which at last she owned she 
was sorry he had made. She complained that they had no 
support, and that everybody they took in becanie useless as 
soon as they were in office — Ellenborough, Rosslyn, Murray. 
It was evident, however, that she did contemplate their loss 
of office as a very probable event, though they do not mean 
to resign, and think they may stave off the evil day. In 
Downing Street we met George Dawson, who told us the 
funds had fallen three per cent., and that the panic was 
tremendous, so much so that they were not without alarm 
lest there should be a run on the Bank for gold. Later in 
the day, however, the funds improved. In the House of 
Lords I heard the Duke's explanation of putting off the 
dinner in the City. On the whole they seem to have done 
well to put it off, but the case did not sound a strong one ; 
it rested on a letter from the Lord Mayor telling the Duke 
an attempt would be made on his life. Still it is a hundred 
to one that there would have been a riot, and possibly all its 
worst evils and crimes. The King is said to be very low, 
hating Reform, desirous of supporting the Duke, but feeling 
that he can do nothing. However, in the House of Lords 
last night the speakers vied with each other in praising his 
Majesty and extolling his popularity. Lady Jersey told me 
that the Duke had said to her, ' Lord, I shall not go out; you 
will see we shall go on very well.' 

November 10th. — It was expected last night that there 
would be a great riot, and preparations were made to meet 
it. Troops were called up to London, and a large body of 
civil power put in motion. People had come in from the 
country in the morning, and everything indicated a dis- 
turbance. After dinner I walked out to see how things were 
going on. There was little mob in the west end of the town, 
and in New Street, Spring Gardens, a large body of the new 
police was drawn up in three divisions, ready to be em- 



56 EEIQN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

ployed if wanted. The Duke of Wellington expected Apsley 
House to be attacked, and made preparations accordingly. 
He desired my brother to go and dine there, to assist in 
making any arrangements that might be necessary. In Pall 
Mall I met Mr. Glyn, the banker, who had been up to Lom- 
bard Street to s@e how matters looked about his house, and 
he told us (Sir T. Farquhar and me) that everything was 
quiet in the City. One of the policemen said that there 
had been a smart brush near Temple Bar, where a body of 
weavers with iron crows and a banner had been dispersed by 
the police, and the banner taken. The police, who are a 
magnificent set of fellows, behave very well, and it seems 
pretty evident that these troubles are not very serious, and 
will soon be put an end to. The attack in Downing Street 
the night before last, of which they made a great affair, 
turned out to be nothing at all. The mob came there from 
Carlile's lecture, but the sentry stopped them near the 
Foreign Office ; the police took them in flank, and they all 
ran away. 

I went to Brooks's, but there was hardly anybody 
there, and nothing occurred in the House of Commons but 
some interchange of Billingsgate between O'Connell and 
George Dawson. The Duke talks with confidence, and has 
no idea of resigning, but he does not inspire his friends with 
the confidence he feels or affects himself, though they talk 
of his resignation as an event which is to plunge all Europe 
into war, and of the impossibility of forming another Ad- 
ministration, all which is mere balderdash, for he proved 
with many others how easy it is to form a Government that 
can go on ; and as to our Continental relations being altered, 
I don't believe a word of it. He may have influence abroad, 
but he owes it not to his own individual character, but to his 
possession of power in England. If the Ministry who succeed 
him are firm and moderate, this country will lose nothing of 
its influence abroad. I have heard these sort of things said 
fifty times of Ministers and Kings. The death of the late 
King was to be the greatest of calamities, and the breath 
was hardly out of his body before everybody discovered that 






1830J THE DUCHESSE DE DINO. 57 

it was the greatest of blessings, and, instead of its being im- 
possible to go on without him, that there would have been 
no going on with him. 

The King gave a dinner to the Prince of Orange the 
other day, and invited all his old military friends to meet 
him. His Majesty was beyond everything civil to the Duke 
of Wellington, and the Queen likewise. Lord Wellesley, 
speaking of the letter to the Lord Mayor, and putting off 
the dinner in the City, said c it was the boldest act of cowar- 
dice he had ever heard of.' 

After some difficulty they have agreed to give Madame 
de Dino 1 the honours of Ambassadress here, the Duke having 
told the King that at Vienna she did the honours of Talley- 
rand's house, and was received on that footing by the Em- 
peror and Empress, so he said, ' Oh, very well ; I will tell the 
Queen, and you had better tell her too.' 

They say the King is exceedingly bullied by the bdtards, 
though Errol told me they were all afraid of him. Dolly 
Eitzclarence lost 1001., betting 100 to 10 that he would go 
to Guildhall, and he told the King he had lost him 100Z., so 
the King gave him the money. It seems that the Duke 
certainly did make some overtures to Palmerston, though I 
do not exactly know when, but I heard that they were very 
fair ones. 

November 11th. — Yesterday the funds rose, and people's 
apprehensions began to subside. Everybody is occupied with 
speculating about the numbers on Tuesday next, and what 
majority the Ministers will get. Yesterday came a letter 
from Lord Heytesbury from St. Petersburg, 2 saying that there 

1 [The Duchesse de Dino was the niece of Prince Talleyrand, then 
French Ambassador at the Court of St. James. The precedent is a curious 
one, for it is certainly not customary for the daughter or niece of an un- 
married Ambassador to enjoy the rank and honours of an Ambassadress.] 

2 [This is the first mention of the cholera morbus, or Asiatic cholera, 
then first appearing in Europe. The quarantine establishments are under 
the control of the Privy Council, and Mr. Greville, as Clerk of the Council, 
was actively employed in superintending them. A Board of Health was 
afterwards established at the Council Office during the prevalence of the 
cholera.] 



58 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

was reason to believe that tlie disorder now raging in Eussia 
is a sort of plague, but that they will not admit it, and that 
it is impossible to get at the truth. We ordered Eussian 
ships to be put under a precautionary quarantine, and made 
a minute to record what we had done. 

November 12th. — The funds have kept advancing, every- 
thing is quiet, and Ministers begin to take courage. The 
Duke means if he has a majority of twenty on Tuesday to 
stay in. It seems his idea is that the resolutions of Broug- 
ham will be framed in general terms on purpose to obtain 
as many votes as possible ; that they will be no test of the 
real opinion of the House, because most of those who may 
concur in a general resolution in favour of Eeform would 
disagree entirely as to specific measures, if any were in- 
troduced ; but it is evident that the support of the Duke's 
friends is growing feebler every day. Yesterday morning 
I met Eobert Clive, a thick and thin Government man, 
and he began with the usual topic, for everybody asks 
after the State, as one does about a sick friend; and 
then he went on to say (concurring with my opinion that 
everything went on ill), 'Why won't the Duke strengthen 
himself ? ' ' He can't ; he has tried, and you see he can't do 
anything.' ' Ah ! but he must make sacrifices ; things cannot 
go on as they do, and he must make sacrifices.' Lord Bath, 
too, came to town, intending to leave his proxy with the 
Duke, and went away with it in his pocket, after hearing his 
famous speech ; though he has a close borough, which he by 
no means wishes to lose, still he is for Eeform. What they 
all feel is that his obstinacy will endanger everything ; that 
by timely concession, and regulating the present spirit, real 
improvements might be made and extreme measures avoided. 
I met Eothschild coming out of Herries' room, with his 
nephew from Paris. He looked pretty lively for a man who 
has lost some millions, but the funds were all up yesterday ; 
he asked me the news, and said Lafitte was the best Minister 
France could have, and that everything was rapidly improving 
there. 

November 15th. — Yesterday morning I breakfasted with 



1830] EOBEET SOUTHEY. 59 

Taylor l to meet Southej : the party was Southey ; Strutt, 
member for Derby, a Eadical ; young Mill, a political econo- 
mist ; Charles Yilliers, young Elliot, and myself. Southey 
is remarkably pleasing in his manner and appearance, un- 
affected, unassuming, and agreeable ; at least such was my 
impression for the hour or two I saw him. Young Mill is 
the son of Mill who wrote the ■ History of British India,' and 
said to be cleverer than his father. He has written many 
excellent articles in reviews, pamphlets, &c, but though 
powerful with a pen in his hand, in conversation he has 
not the art of managing his ideas, and is consequently 
hesitating and slow, and has the appearance of being always 
working in his mind propositions or a syllogism. 

Southey told an anecdote of Sir Massey Lopes, which is 
a good story of a miser. A man came to him and told him 
he was in great distress, and 2001. would save him. He 
gave him a draft for the money. ' ISTow,' says he, ~ what will 
you do with this ? ' c Go to the backers and get it cashed.' 
6 Stop,' said he ; ' I will cash it.' So he gave him the money, 
but first calculated and deducted the discount, thus at once 
exercising his benevolence and his avarice. 

Another story Taylor told (we were talking of the negroes 
and savages) of a girl (in North America) who had been 
brought up for the purpose of being eaten on the day her 
master's son was married or attained a certain age. She 
was proud of being the plat for the occasion, for when she 
was accosted by a missionary, who wanted to convert her to 
Christianity and withdraw her from her fate, she said she had 
no objection to be a Christian, but she must stay to be eaten, 
that she had been fattened for the purpose and must fulfil 
her destiny. 

When I came home I found a note to say my unfortunate 
colleague Buller 2 was dead. He had had an operation per- 

1 [Henry Taylor, the author of ' Philip van Artevelde.' Edward Strutt 
was afterwards created Lord Belper. ' Young Mill ? was the eminent eco- 
nomist and philosopher John Stuart Mill. ' Young Elliot,' Sir Thomas 
Frederick Elliot, K.S.M.G., long one of the ablest members of the Colonial 
Department, to which Heury Taylor, the poet, himself belonged.] 

2 [James Buller, Esq., senior Clerk of the Council.] 



60 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

formed on his lip, after which he caught cold, got an inflam- 
mation in the windpipe, and died in two or three days. He 
was a very honourable, obliging, and stupid man, and a great 
loss to me, for I shall hardly find a more accommodating 
colleague. 

In the evening I dined with Lord Sefton to meet Talley- 
rand and Madame de Dino. There were Brougham and 
Denman, the latter brought by the former to show Talley- 
rand to him. After dinner Talleyrand held a circle and 
discoursed, but I did not come in for his talk. They were 
all delighted, but long experience has proved to me that 
people are easily delighted with whatever is in vogue. 
Brougham is very proud of his French, which is execrable, 
and took the opportunity of holding forth in a most barbarous 
jargon, which he fancied was the real accent and phraseology. 
He told me he should have 250 votes on his motion. I said 
to him, ' They think they shall have a majority of 150.' He 
said, ' Then there must be 650 to divide, for at the lowest 
computation I shall have 250.' But at night Henry told 
me that the Duke, though he put a good face on it, was 
in fact very low, and that, from what Gosh [Arbuthnot] 
had said, he would certainly resign unless he carried the 
question by a large majority. In the morning I called on 
Lady Granville, who told me, as a great secret, that the Duke, 
notwithstanding his speech, was prepared to offer a com- 
promise, and her story was this : — She had dined at Ludolf's 
a few days ago to meet the Duchesse de Berri. All the 
great people dined there, among others the Chancellor and 
Lady Lyndhurst, and after dinner Lady Lyndhurst came 
up to her bursting with indignation, and confided to her 
that the Duke had resolved to offer a resolution to the 
effect that in any future case of borough delinquency the 
representation should be transferred to a great town, and 
that she thought after what had passed this would be so 
disgraceful that it disgusted her beyond expression, and a 
great deal more to this effect. I confess I don't believe a 
word of it. I met the Prince of Orange last night in ex- 



1830] DEFEAT OF THE WELLINGTON MINISTRY. 61 

cellent spirits and humour, and quite convinced that he will 
be recalled to Brussels. 

November 16th. — The Duke of Wellington's Administra- 
tion is at an end. If he has not already resigned, he pro- 
bably will do so in the course of the day. Everybody was so 
intent on the Eeform question that the Civil List was not 
thought of, and consequently the defeat of Government last 
night was unexpected. Although numbers of members were 
shut out there was a great attendance, and a majority of 
twenty-nine. Of those who were shut out, almost all declare 
that they meant to have voted in the majority. 1 

I went to Mrs. Taylor's at night and found Ferguson, 
Denman, and Taylor, who had just brought the news. The 
exultation of the Opposition was immense. Word was sent 
down their line not to cheer, but they were not to be re- 
strained, and Sefton's yell was heard triumphant in the din. 
The Tories voted with them. There had been a meeting at 
Knatchbull's in the morning, when they decided to go 
against Government. Worcester had dined at Apsley 
House, and returned with the news, but merely said that they 
had had a bad division — twenty-nine. Everybody thought 
he meant a majority for Government, and the Duke, who 
already knew what had happened, made a sign to him to say 
nothing. Worcester knew nothing himself, having arrived 
after the division ; they told him the numbers, and he came 
away fancying they were for Government. So off the com- 
pany went to Madame de Dino, where they heard the truth. 
Great was the consternation and long were the faces, but the 
outs affected to be merry and the ins were serious. Talley- 
rand fired off a courier to Paris forthwith. 

Yesterday morning I went to Downing Street early, to 
settle with Lord Bathurst about the new appointment to my 
office. Till I told him he did not know the appointment was 
in the Crown ; so he hurried off to the King, and proposed his 
son William. The King was very gracious, and said, ' I can 

1 [The division was taken on Sir Henry Parnell's motion to refer the 
Civil List to a Select Committee, which was carried by 233 to 204.] 



62 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

never object to a father's doing what he can for his own 
children/ which was an oblique word for the bdtards, about 
whom, however, it may be said en passant he has been marvel- 
lously forbearing. 

I had a long conversation with Lady Bathurst, who told 
me that the Duke had resolved to stand or fall on the Reform 
question, that he had asked Lord Bathurst's opinion, who 
had advised him by all means to do so ; that Lord Bathurst 
had likewise put his own place at the Duke's disposal long 
before, and was ready to resign at any moment. It is clear 
that Lord Bathurst had some suspicion that the Duke had 
an idea of not standing or falling by that question, for he 
asked him whether anybody had given him different advice, 
to which he replied, though it seems rather vaguely, 'No, oh 
no ; I think you are quite right.' T told her the substance of 
what I had heard about his being disposed to a compromise. 
She said it was quite impossible, that he would be disgraced 
irredeemably, but owned it was odd that there should be 
that notion and the suspicion which crossed Lord Bathurst's 
mind. I do think it is possible, but for his honour I hope 
not. The Bathursts felt this appointment of William was a 
sort of ' Nunc dimittis,' but there is yet something between 
the cup and the lip, for Stanley got up in the House of Com- 
mons and attacked the appointment, and it is just possible 
it may yet be stopped. 

Went to Brookes' in the evening, where there was nobody 
left but Sefton baiting Eerguson for having been out of the 
division. He told me that it was not impossible Lord 
Spencer would be put at the head of Government. They 
will manage to make a confounded mess of it, I dare say. 
Billy Holmes came to the Duke last night with the news of 
the division, and implored him to let nothing prevent his 
resigning to-day. 

November 17th. — Went to Downing Street yesterday 
morning between twelve and one, and found that the Duke 
and all the Ministers were just gone to the King. He re- 
ceived them with the greatest kindness, shed tears, but ac- 
cepted their resignation without remonstrance. He told 



1880] THE KING'S BEHAVIOUE AT THE CRISIS. 63 

Lord Bathurst lie would do anything he could, and asked 
him if there was nothing he could sign which would secure 
his son's appointment. Lord Bathurst thanked him, but 
told him he could do nothing. The fact is the appointment 
might be hurried through, but the salary depends upon an 
annual vote of the House of Commons, and an exasperated 
and triumphant Opposition would be sure to knock it off ; so 
he has done the only thing he can do, which is to leave it 
to the King to secure the appointment for him if possible. 
It will be a great piece of luck for somebody that Buller 
should have died exactly when he did. William Bathurst 
may perhaps lose the place from his not dying earlier, or the 
new Government may lose the patronage because he did not 
die later ; but it is ill luck for me, who shall probably have 
more trouble because he has died at all. 

The Duke and Peel announced their resignations in the two 
Houses, and Brougham put off his motion, but with a speech 
signifying that he should take no part in the new Govern- 
ment. The last acts of the Duke were to secure pensions of 
250/. a year to each of his secretaries, and to fill up the ec- 
clesiastical preferments. The Garter remains for his suc- 
cessor. The Duke of Bedford got it, and, what is singular, 
the Duke of Wellington would probably have given it him 
likewise. He was one of five whom he meant to choose from, 
and it lay between him and Lord Cleveland. 

I met the Duke coming out of his room, but did not 
like to speak to him ; he got into his cabriolet, and nodded 
as he passed, but he looked very grave. The King seems to 
have behaved perfectly throughout the whole business, no 
intriguing or underhand communication with anybody, with 
great kindness to his Ministers, anxious to support them 
while it was possible, and submitting at once to the necessity 
of parting with them. The fact is he turns out an incom- 
parable King, and deserves all the encomiums that are 
lavished on him. All the mountebankery which signalised 
his conduct when he came to the throne has passed away 
with the excitement which caused it, and he is as dignified 
as the homeliness and simplicity of his character will allow 



6-t EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

him to be. I understand he sent for Lord Spencer in the 
course of the day, who probably said he could not undertake 
anything-, for he afterwards sent for Lord Grey (after the 
House of Lords), and as he must have been very well pre- 
pared, it is probable that a new Government will be speedily 
formed. 

I went to Lady Jersey's in the evening, when she was or 
affected to be very gay and very glad that the Duke was out. 
I found there the Prince of Orange, Esterhazy, Madame de 
Dino, Wilton, Worcester, Duncannon, Lord Kosslyn, Ma- 
tuscewitz, &c. There has been a strong idea that the Chan- 
cellor [Lyndhurst] would keep the seals. Both Holmes and 
Planta have repeatedly told the Duke that he would be 
beaten in the House of Commons, and they both knew the 
House thoroughly. Still he never would do anything. He 
made overtures to Palmer ston just before Parliament met 
through Lord Clive, and the result was an interview between 
them at Apsley House, but it came to nothing. I dare say 
he did not offer half enough. It is universally believed that 
Peel pressed the Civil List question for the purpose of being" 
beaten upon it, and going out on that rather than on Eeform, 
for Planta told him how it would be, and he might very well 
have given the Committee if he had liked it ; but he said he 
would abide by it, and he certainly was in excellent spirits 
afterwards for a beaten Minister. Now that this Eeform has 
served their purpose so well, and turned out the Duke, the 
Opposition would be well satisfied to put it aside again, and 
take time to consider what they shall do, for it is a terrible 
question for them. Pledged as they have been, it is sure to 
be the rock on which the little popularity they have gained 
will split, as it is a hundred to one that whatever they do 
they will not go far enough to satisfy the country. 

November 19th. — The day before yesterday Lord Grey 
went to the King, who received him with every possible 
kindness, and gave him carte blanche to form a new Adminis- 
tration, placing even the Household at his disposal — much 
to the disgust of the members of it. Ever since the town 
has been as usual teeming with reports, but with fewer lies 



1830] DISCONTENT OF BKOUGHAM. 65 

than usual. The fact is Lord Grey has had no difficulties, 
and has formed a Government at once ; only Brougham put 
them all in a dreadful fright. He all but declared a hostile 
intention to the future Administration ; he boasted that he 
would take nothing, refuse even the Great Seal, and flourished 
his Reform in terrorem over their heads ; he was affronted and 
furious because he fancied they neglected him, but it all 
arose, as I am told, from Lord Grey's letter to him not 
reaching him directly, by some mistake, for that he was the 
first person he wrote to. Still it is pretty clear that this 
eccentric luminary will play the devil with their system. 

[The letter could not be the cause. The history of the 
transaction is this : — When Lord Grey undertook to form a 
Government he sent for Lord Lansdowne and Lord Holland, 
and these three began to work, without consulting with 
Brougham or any member of the House of Commons. 
Brougham was displeased at not being consulted at first, 
but was indignant when Lord Grey proposed to him to 
be Attorney-General. Then he showed his teeth, and they 
grew frightened, and soon after they sent Sefton to him, who 
got him into good humour, and it was made up by the offer 
of the Great Seal. — November 23rd.] 

November 20th. — Here I was interrupted, and broke off 
yesterday morning. At twelve o'clock yesterday everything 
was settled but the Great Seal, and in the afternoon the 
great news transpired that Brougham had accepted it. 
Great was the surprise, greater still the joy at a charm 
having been found potent enough to lay the unquiet spirit, a 
bait rich enough to tempt his restless ambition. I confess 
I had no idea he would have accepted the Chancellorship 
after his declarations in the House of Commons and the 
whole tenor of his conduct. I was persuaded that he had 
made to himself a political existence the like of which no man 
had ever before possessed, and that to have refused the 
Great Seal would have appeared more glorious than to take 
it ; intoxicated with his Yorkshire honours, swollen with his 
own importance, and holding in his hands questions which 
he could employ to thwart, embarrass, and ruin any Minis- 

VOL. IT. F 



66 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

try, I thought that he meant to domineer in the House 
of Commons and to gather popularity throughout the 
country by enforcing popular measures of which he would 
have all the credit, and thus establish a sort of individual 
power and authority, which would ensure his being dreaded, 
courted, and consulted by all parties. He could then have 
gratified his vanity, ambition, and turbulence ; the Bar would 
have supplied fortune, and events would have supplied en- 
joyments suited to his temperament ; it would have been a 
sort of madness, mischievous but splendid. As it is the 
joy is great and universal ; all men feel that he is emascu- 
lated and drops on the Woolsack as on his political death- 
bed ; once in the House of Lords, there is an end of him, 
and he may rant storm and thunder without hurting any- 
body. 1 

The other places present a plausible show, but are not 
well distributed, some ill filled. Graham Admiralty, Mel- 
bourne Home, Auckland Board of Trade — all bad. The 
second is too idle, the first too inconsiderable, the third too 
ignorant. 2 They have done it very quickly, however, and 
without many difficulties. As to the Duke of Richmond, 

1 [Lord Grey's Administration was thus composed : — 
First Lord of the Treasury . . . Earl Grey. 
Lord Chancellor .... Lord Brougham. 
Lord President . . . Marquis of Lansdowne. 
Lord Privy Seal .... Lord Eipon (in 1833). 
Chancellor of the Exchequer . . . Viscount Althorp. 
Home Secretary .... Viscount Melbourne. 
Foreign Secretary . . . . Viscount Palmerston. 
Colonial Secretary . . . Viscount Goderich, and 

afterwards Mr. Stanley. 

Board of Control . . , . Mr. Charles Grant. 

Board of Trade « Lord Auckland. 

Admiralty . . , . . Sir James Graham. 

Postmaster-General . . . Bake of "Richmond. 

Paymaster-General . . . . Lord John Russell. 

Irish Secretary .... Mr. Stanley.] 

2 [This is a remarkable instance of the manner in which the prognosti- 
cations of the most acute observers are falsified by events. The value of 
Mr. Greville's remarks on the men of his time consists not in their absolute 
truth, but in their sincerity at the moment at which they were made. 
They convey a correct impression of the notion prevailing at that time. 
Thus Sir James Graham became unquestionably a very active First Lord of 



1830] LOED GEEY'S ADMINISTRATION. 67 

people are indignant at a half-pay lieutenant-colonel 
commanding the Ordnance Department, and as an acquisi- 
tion he is of doubtful value, for it seems the Tories will not 
go with him, at least will not consider themselves as his 
followers ; so said Lord Mansfield and Vyvyan. 

November 21st. — The Duke of Richmond's appointment 
was found so unpalatable to the army that they have been 
forced to change it, and he is to be Master of the Horse 
instead, which I suspect will not be to his taste. [He after- 
wards refused the Mastership of the Horse, and it ended in 
his being Postmaster-General, but without taking the salary.] 

There have been some little changes, but no great diffi- 
culties. It was at first said that there would be no Opposi- 
tion, and that Peel would not stir ; but William Peel told 
me last night that the old Ministerial party was by no 
means so tranquilly inclined. Peel will not be violent or 
factious, but he thinks an attentive Opposition desirable, and 
he will not desert those who have looked up to and sup- 
ported him. Then there will be the Tories (who will to 
a certainty end by joining him and his party) and the 
Radicals — three distinct parties, and enough to keep the 
Government on the qui vive. The expulsion of the late 
Government from power will satisfy the vengeance of the 
Tories, and I have no doubt they will now make it up. 
Peel will be the leader of a party to which all the Con- 
servative interest of the country will repair ; and it is my 
firm belief that in a very short time (two or three years, or 
less) he will be Prime Minister, and will hold power long. 1 
The Duke will probably never take office again, but will be 
at the head of the army, and his own friends begin to admit 
that this would be the most desirable post for him. Lord 
Lyndhurst will be greatly disgusted at Brougham's taking 
the Great Seal. I met him the day before yesterday, when 

the Admiralty, Lord Melbourne a ' considerable ' Prime Minister of Eng- 
land, and Lord Auckland a painstaking- and well-informed Governor- 
General of India.] 

1 [This prediction was not fulfilled until 1841 (for the short Adminis- 
tration of Sir liobert in 1834 can hardly be reckoned), but it was fulfilled 
at last.] 

f 2 



68 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII. 

lie had bo idea of it ; lie thought it would certainly be put 
in Commission, and evidently looked forward to filling the 
office again in a few months. He said that he had long 
foreseen this catastrophe, and it was far better to be out 
than to drag on as they did ; that he had over and over 
again said to the Duke, and remonstrated with him on the 
impossibility of carrying on such a Government, but that he 
would never listen to anything. Sir John Leach, too, was 
exceedingly disappointed ; he told me he had not heard a 
word of what was going on, that he was contented where he 
was, ' though perhaps he might have been miserable in 
another situation.' 1 

In the meantime the new Government will find plenty 
to occupy their most serious thoughts and employ their best 
talents. The state of the country is dreadful; every post 
brings fresh accounts of conflagrations, destruction of 
machinery, association of labourers, and compulsory rise of 
wages. Cobbett and Carlile write and harangue to in- 
flame the minds of the people, who are already set in motion 
and excited by all the events which have happened abroad. 
Distress is certainly not the cause of these commotions, 
for the people have patiently supported far greater privations 
than they had been exposed to before these riots, and the 
country was generally in an improving state. 

The Duke of Eichmond went down to Sussex and had 
a battle with a mob of 200 labourers, whom he beat with 
fifty of his own farmers and tenants, harangued them, and 
sent them away in good humour. He is, however, very popu- 
lar. In Hants the disturbances have been dreadful. There 
was an assemblage of 1,000 or 1,500 men, a part of whom 
went towards Baring's house (the Grange) after destroying 

1 [Lord Grey certainly contemplated at one moment the offer of the 
Great Seal to Lord Lyndhurst, but the spectre of Brougham rendered that 
impossible. Brougham himself would have preferred the advancement of 
Sir John Leach to the Woolsack, which would have left the Rolls at his 
own disposal, and enabled him to retain his seat in the House of Commons. 
But this suggestion was by no means welcome to Lord Grey, and Lord 
Althorp at once declared that he could not undertake the leadership of the 
House of Commons if Brougham was to remain in it in any official positicn 
to domineer over him.] 



1830] BROUGHA3I LOED CHAXCELLOE. 69 

threshing-machines and other agricultural implements; they 
were met by Bingham Baring, who attempted to address 
them, when a fellow (who had been employed at a guinea 
a week by his father up to four days before) knocked him 
down with an iron bar and nearly killed him. They have 
no troops in that part of the countr} 7 , and there is a depot 
of arms at Winchester. 

The Prince of Orange, who has been fancying without the 
least reason that he should be recalled to Belgium, is now 
in despair ; and the Provisional Government, on hearing of 
the change of Ministry here, have suspended their nego- 
tiations, thinking they shall get from Lord Grey a more 
extended frontier. Altogether the alarm which prevails is 
very great, and those even are terrified who never were so 
before. 

November 22nd. — Dined yesterday at Sefton's ; nobody 
there but Lord Grey and his family, Brougham and Montrond, 
the latter just come from Paris. It was excessively agreeable. 
Lord Grey in excellent spirits, and Brougham, whom Sefton 
bantered from the beginning to the end of dinner. 1 Be 
Brougham's political errors what they may, his gaiety, 
temper, and admirable social qualities make him delightful, 
to say nothing of his more solid merits, of liberality, 
generosity, and charity ; for charity it is to have taken the 
whole family of one of his brothers who is dead — nine 
children — and maintained and educated them. From this 
digression to return to our dinner : it was uncommonly 
gay. Lord Grey said he had taken a task on himself which 
he was not equal to, prided himself on having made his 
arrangements so rapidly, and on having named no person to 
any office who was not efficient; he praised Lyndhurst 
highly, said he liked him, that his last speech was luminous, 
and that he should like very much to do anything he could 
for him, but that it was such an object to have Brougham 
on the Woolsack. So I suppose he would not dislike to take 

1 [Lord Brougham had taken his seat on the Woolsack as Lord High 
Chancellor on the afternoon of this day, the 22m\ of November. The patent 
of his peerage bore the same date.] 



70 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XII, 

in Lyndhurst by-and-by. He would not tell us whom he 
has got for the Ordnance. John Russell was to have had 
the War Office, but Tavistock x entreated that the appoint- 
ment might be changed, as his brother's health was unequal 
to it ; so he was made Paymaster. Lord Grey said he had 
more trouble with those offices than with the Cabinet ones. 
Sefton did nothing but quiz Brougham — e My Lord ' every 
minute, and ' What does his Lordship say ? ' ' I'm sure it is 
very condescending of his Lordship to speak to such canaille 
as all of you,' and a thousand jokes. After dinner he walked 
out before him with the fire shovel for the mace, and left him 
no repose all the evening. I wish Leach could have heard 
Brougham. He threatened to sit often at the Cockpit, in 
order to check Leach, 2 who, though a good judge in his own 
Court, was good for nothing in a Court of Appeal ; he said 
that Leach's being Chancellor was impossible, as there were 
forty-two appeals from him to the Chancellor, which he 
would have had to decide himself; and that he (Brougham) 
had wanted the Seal to be put in Commission with three 
judges, which would have been the best reform of the Court, 
expedited business, and satisfied suitors; but that Lord 
Grey would not hear of it, and had forced him to take it, 
which he was averse to do, being reluctant to leave the 
House of Commons. 

He said the Duke of Richmond had done admirably in 
capturing the incendiary who has been taken, and who they 
think will afford a clue whereby they will discover the secret 
of all the burnings. This man called himself Evans. They 
had information of his exciting the peasantry, and sent a 
Bow Street officer after him. He found out where he lived 

1 [The Marquis of Tavistock, Lord John Russell's eldest brother, after- 
wards Duke of Bedford. Lord John has since held almost every Cabinet 
office : his brother's notion that his health was unequal to the War Office 
in 1830 is amusing.] 

2 [The Master of the Rolls was at that time the presiding Judge of 
Appeal at the Privy Council, which was commonly spoken of as ' the Cockpit/ 
because it sat on the site of the old Cockpit at Whitehall ; but the business 
was very ill done, which led Lord Brougham to bring in and carry his Act 
for the creation of the Judicial Committee in 1832 — one of his best and most 
successful measures.] 



1830] ■ COUNCIL OF THE NEW MINISTERS. 71 

and captured him (having been informed that he was not 
there bj the inmates of the house), and took him to the Duke, 
who had him searched. On his person were found stock 
receij)ts for 800?., of which 601. was left; and a chemical 
receipt in a secret pocket for combustibles. He was taken 
to prison, and will be brought up to town. Montrond was 
very amusing — 'You, Lord Brougham, when you mount 
your bag of wool ? ' 

November 23rd. — Yesterday at Court; a great day, and 
very amusing. The old Ministers came to give up their seals, 
and the new Ministers came to take them. All the first were 
assembled at half-past one ; saw the King in his closet seve- 
rally, and held their last Council to swear in George Dawson 
a Privy Councillor. Each after his audience departed, most 
of them never to return. As they went away they met the 
others arriving. I was with the old set in the Throne Eoom 
till they went away, and on opening the door and looking 
into the other room I found it full of the others — Althorp, 
Graham, Auckland, J. Russell, Durham, &c, faces that a 
little while ago I should have had small expectation of finding 
there. The effect was very droll, such a complete changement 
de decoration. When the old Ministers were all off the busi- 
ness of the day began. All the Cabinet was there — the new 
Master of the Horse (Lord Albemarle), Lord Wellesley, his 
little eyes twinkling with joy, and Brougham, in Chancellor's 
costume, but not yet a Peer. The King sent for me into the 
closet to settle about their being sworn in, and to ask what 
was to be done about Brougham, whose patent was not come, 
and who wanted to go to the House of Lords. These things 
settled, he held the Council, when twelve new Privy Council- 
lors were sworn in, three Secretaries of State, Privy Seal, and 
the declarations made of President of Council and Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland. The King could not let slip the op- 
portunity of making a speech, so when I put into his hands 
the paper declaring Lord Anglesey Lord-Lieutenant he was not 
content to read it, but spoke nearly as follows : — ' My Lords, 
it is a part of the duty I have to perform to declare a Lord- 
Lieutenant of Ireland, and although I certainly should have 



72 



EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. 



[Chap. XII. 



acquiesced in any recommendation which might have been 
made to me for this appointment by Earl Grey, I must say 
that I have peculiar satisfaction in entrusting that most 
important charge to the noble Lord, whom I therefore 
declare with entire satisfaction Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. 
And, my Lords, I must say that this day is since that of the 
death of my poor brother (here his voice faltered and he 
looked or tried to look affected) the most important which 
has occurred since the beginning of my reign, for in the 
course of my long life it has never happened to me to see so 
many appointments to be filled up as on this day ; and when 
I consider that it is only last Tuesday night that the force of 
circumstances compelled those who were the confidential 
advisers of the Crown to relinquish the situations which they 
held, and that in this short space of time a new Government 
has been formed, I cannot help considering such despatch as 
holding forth the best hopes for the future, and proving the 
unanimity of my Government ; and, my Lords, I will take this 
opportunity of saying that the noble Earl (Grey) and the 
other noble Lords and gentlemen may be assured that they 
will receive from me the most cordial, unceasing, and devoted 
support.' The expressions of course are not exactly the 
same, but his speech was to this purpose, only longer. 
Brougham kissed hands in the closet, and afterwards in 
Council as Chancellor and Privy Councillor, and then went 
off to the House of Lords. 



73 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Proclamation against Rioters — Appointments— Duke of Wellington in 
Hampshire — General Excitement — The Tory Party — State of Ireland — 
More Disturbances — Lord Grey's Colleagues — Election at Liverpool — 
The Black Book — The Duke of Wellington's Position and Character — 
A Council on a Capital Sentence — Brougham in the House of Lords — 
The Clerks of the Council — Lord Grey and Lord Lyndhurst — The 
Chancellor of Ireland — Lord Melbourne — Duke of Richmond — Sir James 
Graham — Lyndhurst Lord Chief Baron — Judge Allan Park — Lord 
Lyndhurst and the W T higs — Duke of Wellington and Polignac — The 
King and his Sons — Polish Revolution — Mechanics' Institute — Repeal 
of the Union — King Louis Philippe — Lord Anglesey and O'Connell — A 
Dinner at the Athenaeum — Canning and George IV. — Formation of 
Canning's Government — Negotiation with Lord Melbourne— Count 
Walewski — Croker's Boswell — State of Ireland — Brougham and Sugden 
— Arrest of O'Connell— Colonel Napier and the Trades Unions — The 
Civil List — Hunt in the House of Commons — Southey's Letter to 
Brougham on Literary Honours — The Budget — O'Connell pleads guilty 
— Achille Murat — Weakness of the Government; — Lady Jersey and Lord 
Durham — Lord Duncannon — Ireland — Wordsworth. 



November 2oth. — The accounts from the country on the 
2 3rd were so bad that a Cabinet sat all the morning, and con- 
certed a proclamation offering large rewards for the discovery 
of offenders, rioters, or burners. Half the Cabinet walked to 
St. James's, where I went with the draft proclamation 
in my pocket, and we held a Council in the King's room to 
approve it. I remember the last Council of this sort we held 
was on Queen Caroline's business. She had demanded to be 
heard by counsel in support of her asserted right to be 
crowned, and the King ordered in Council that she should be 
heard. We held the Council in his dressing-room at Carlton 
House ; he was in his bedgown, and we in our boots. This 
proclamation did not receive the sign manual or the Great 



74 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap XIII. 

Seal and was not engrossed till the next day, but was never- 
theless published in the c Gazette.' 

Yesterday the accounts were better. There was a levee 
and Council, all the Ministers present but Palmerston and 
Holland. The King made a discourse, and took occasion 
(about some Admiralty order) to introduce the whole history 
of his early naval life, his first going to sea and the instruc- 
tions which George III. gave Admiral Digby as to his treat- 
ment. All the old Ministers came to the levee except the 
Duke of Wellington, who was in Hampshire to try his influence 
as Lord-Lieutenant in putting down the riots. Anson as 
Master of the Buckhounds was made a Privy Councillor, not 
usually a Privy Councillor's place, but the King said he 
rather liked increasing the number than not. Clanricarde 
has a Gold Stick, so there is Canning's son-in-law in office 
under Lord Grey ! There has been a difficulty about the 
Master- General of the Ordnance, and a little difference 
between Lord Grey and Lord Hill : when the Duke of Eich- 
mond was withdrawn, Grey determined to appoint Sir W. 
Gordon, but as Gordon would have to give up a permanent 
for a temporary office, he bargained that he should have the 
Grand Cross of the Bath. Lord Grey at the same time 
promised his brother Sir Charles Grey a Grand Cross, 
but Lord Hill (who as Commander-in-Chief has all the 
Crosses at his disposal) was offended at what he considered a 
slight to him and went to the King to complain. It is 
probable that Lord Grey knew nothing of the matter, and 
fancied they were all recommended by himself. As the 
matter stands now, Gordon's appointment is suspended. 
The only other difficulty is to find a Secretary at War. 
Sandon is to have it, if they can make no better arrange- 
ment. I had a long conversation with the Duke of Eich- 
mond yesterday about refusing the salary of his office, and 
entreated him to take it, for most people think his declining 
it great nonsense. He alleged a great many bad reasons for 
declining, but promised to consider the matter. 

I am in a very disagreeable situation as regards my late 
colleague's place. Lord Bathurst wrote a letter to Lord 



1830] DISTURBED STATE OF THE COUNTRY. 75 

Lansdowne stating that the King had approved of his son's 
appointment, and that he had intended to reduce the salary 
of the office. Lord Grey spoke to the King, and said that 
after what had passed in both Houses he did not wish to do 
anything, but to leave the office to be dealt with by a Com- 
mittee of the House of Commons, under whose consideration 
it would come. Lord Lansdowne said he certainly should do 
nothing either, so that it remains to be seen whether they 
will give me a colleague, a deputy, or nothing at all. 

November 28th. — The Duke of Wellington, who as soon 
as he was out of office repaired to Hants, and exerted himself 
as Lord-Lieutenant to suppress the disorders, returned yes- 
terday, having done much good, and communicated largely 
with the Secretary of State. The Government are full of 
compliments and respects to him, and the Chancellor wrote 
him a letter entreating he would name any gentleman to be 
added to the Special Commission which was going down to 
the county over which he 6 so happily presided.' He named 
three. 

There has been nothing new within these three days, but 
the alarm is still very great, and the general agitation which 
pervades men's minds unlike what I have ever seen. Reform, 
economy, echoed backwards and forwards, the doubts, the 
hopes and the fears of those who have anything to lose, the 
uncertainty of everybody's future condition, the immense 
interests at stake, the magnitude and imminence of the 
danger, all contribute to produce a nervous excitement, which 
extends to all classes — to almost every individual. Until the 
Ministers are re-elected nobody can tell what will be done in 
Parliament, and Lord Grey himself has no idea what sort of 
strength the Government will have in either House ; but there 
is a prevailing opinion that they ought to be supported at 
this moment, although the Duke of Wellington and Peel 
mean to keep their party together. Lyndhurst's resignation 
with his colleagues (added to his not being invited to join 
this Government) has restored him to the good graces of his 
party, for Lord Bathurst told me had behaved very 
honourably. He means now to set to work to gain character, 



76 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

and as he is about the ablest public man going, and nearly 
the best speaker, he will yet bustle himself into considera- 
tion and play a part once more. Peel, Lyndhurst, and Har- 
dinge are three capital men for the foundation of a party — 
as men of business superior to any three in this Cabinet. But 
I doubt if the Duke will ever be in a civil office again, nor do 
I think the country would like to see him at the head of a 
Government, unless it was one conducted in a very different 
manner from the last. For the present deplorable state of 
things, and for the effervescence of public opinion, which 
threatens the overthrow of the constitution in trying to 
amend it, Peel and the Duke are entirely responsible ; and 
the former is the less excusable because he might have 
known better, and if he had gone long ago to the Duke, and 
laid before him the state of public opinion, told him how irre- 
sistible it was, and had refused to carry on the Government 
in the House of Commons with such a crew as he had, 
the Duke must have given way. Notwithstanding the great 
measures which have distinguished his Government, such as 
Catholic Emancipation, and the repeal of the Test Acts, a 
continual series of systematic blunders, an utter ignorance of, 
and indifference to, public opinion, have rendered the first 
of these great measures almost useless. Ireland is on the 
point of becoming in a worse state than before the Catholic 
question was settled ; and why ? Because, first of all, the set- 
tlement was put off too long, and the fever of agitation would 
not subside, and because it was accompanied by an insult to 
O'Connell, which he has been resolved to revenge, and which 
he knows he can punish. Then instead of depriving him of 
half his influence by paying the priests, and so getting them 
under the influence of Government, they neglected this, and 
followed up the omission by taxing Ireland, and thus uniting 
the whole nation against us. What is this but egregious 
presumption, blindness, ignorance, and want of all political 
calculation and foresight ? What remains now to be done ? 
Perhaps nothing, for the anti-Union question is spreading far 
and wide with a velocity that is irresistible, and it is the 
more dangerous because the desire for the repeal of the Union 



1830] THE EESULTS OF TORY GOVERNMENT. 77 

is rather the offspring of imagination than of reason, and 
arises from vague, excited hopes, not, like the former agitation, 
from real wrongs, long and deeply felt. But common shifts 
and expedients, partial measures, will not do now, and in the 
state of the game a deep stake must be played or all will 
be lost. To buy O'Connell at any price, pay the Catholic 
Church, establish poor laws, encourage emigration, and 
repeal the obnoxious taxes and obnoxious laws, are the only 
expedients which have a chance of restoring order. It is 
easy to write these things, but perhaps difficult to carry them 
into execution, but what we want is a head to conceive and a 
heart to execute such measures as the enormous difficulties of 
the times demand. 

December 1st. — The last two or three days have produced 
no remarkable outrages, and though the state of the country 
is still dreadful, it is rather better on the whole than it was ; 
but London is like the capital of a country desolated by cruel 
war or foreign invasion, and we are always looking for 
reports of battles, burnings, and other disorders. Wherever 
there has been anything like fighting, the mob has always 
been beaten, and has shown the greatest cowardice. They 
do not, however, seem to have been actuated by a very fero- 
cious spirit ; and considering the disorders of the times, it 
is remarkable that they have not been more violent and 
rapacious. Lord Craven, who is just of age, with three or four 
more young Lords, his friends, defeated and dispersed them in 
Hampshire. They broke into the Duke of Beaufort's house 
at Heythrop, but he and his sons got them out without 
mischief, and afterwards took some of them. On Monday as 
the field which had been out with the King's hounds were 
returning to town, they were summoned to assist in quell- 
ing a riot at Woburn, which they did; the gentlemen 
charged and broke the people, and took some of them, and 
fortunately some troops came up to secure the prisoners. 
The alarm, however, still continues, and a feverish anxiet} r 
about the future universally prevails, for no man can foresee 
what course events will take, nor how his own individual cir- 
cumstances may be affected by them. 



78 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

The Government in the meantime promises fair, and they 
begin by a display of activity, in early attendance at their 
offices, and nnusual recommendation of diligence and 
economy. But Lord Grey's Government is already carped 
at, and not withont apparent reason. The distribution of 
offices is in many instances bad ; many of the appointments 
were bad, and the number of his own family provided for is 
severely criticised. There are of Lord Grey's family : Ho wick, 
Under-Secretary ; Ellice, Secretary of the Treasury ; Bar- 
rington, Lord of the Admiralty ; Durham, Privy Seal ; Wood, 
Private Secretary (though he has no salary) ; and Lambton's 
brother in the Household. Melbourne at the Home Office is 
considered an inefficient successor to Peel, Graham too young 
and not enough distinguished for the Admiralty; Poulett 
Thomson is said to entertain the most Radical opinions ; 
Althorp put him in. There never was a more sudden rise 
than this ; a young merchant, after two or three years of 
Parliament and two or three speeches, is made "Vice-President 
of the Board of Trade, Treasurer of the Navy, and a Privy 
Councillor. Then Althorp as Chancellor of the Exchequer 
may be a good one, but nobody expects much from anything 
that is already known about him. This constitution of the 
Government has already done harm, and has stamped a 
character of rapacity upon Lord Grey, which he will hear of 
in proper time ; but at this moment he has got all the press 
on his side, and people are resolved to give him credit for 
good intentions. Brougham has captivated the Archbishop 
of Canterbury by offering to give livings to any deserving 
clergyman he would recommend to him. I met him at 
dinner yesterday in the greatest spirits, elated and not 
altered by his new dignity. He is full of projects of reform 
in the administration of justice, and talks of remodelling 
the Privy Council as a Court of Appeal, which would be of 
great use. 

December 2nd. — Yesterday a levee and Council and Re- 
corder's report. Clanricarde and Robert Grosvenor l sworn in. 

The Liverpool election, which is just over, was, consi- 

1 [Afterwards Lord Ebiny.] 



1830] LIVEEPOOL ELECTION. 79 

dering the present state of things, a remarkable contest. It 
is said to have cost near 100,000?. to the two parties, and to 
have exhibited a scene of bribery and corruption perfectly 
unparalleled ; no concealment or even semblance of decency 
was observed ; the price of tallies and of votes rose, like 
stock, as the demand increased, and single votes fetched from 
151. to 1001. apiece. They voted by tallies; as each tally 
voted for one or the other candidate they were furnished 
with a receipt for their votes, with which they went to the 
committee, when through a hole in the wall the receipt was 
handed in, and through another the stipulated sum handed 
oat ; and this scene of iniquity has been exhibited at a period 
when the cry for Eeform is echoed from one end of the 
country to the other, and in the case of a man (Denison) 
who stood on the principle of Eeform. Nobody yet knows 
whence the money for Denison comes (the Ewarts are enor- 
mously rich), but it will be still more remarkable if he should 
pay it himself, when he is poor, careful of money, and was 
going to India the other day in order to save 1 2,000 1, or 
15,000?. If anybody had gone down at the eleventh hour 
and polled one good vote, he would have beaten both candi- 
dates and disfranchised the borough. ' As it is, it is probable 
the matter will be taken up and the borough disfranchised. 
The right of voting is as bad as possible in the freemen, who 
are the lowest rabble of the town and, as it appears, a parcel 
of venal wretches. Here comes the difficulty of Eeform, for 
how is it possible to reform the electors ? 

December 5th. — The country is getting quieter, but though 
the immediate panic is passing away men's minds are not 
the less disquieted as to our future prospects. Not a soul 
knows what plan of Eeform the Ministers will propose, nor 
how far they are disposed to go. The Duke of Devonshire 
has begun in his own person by announcing to the Knares- 
borough people that he will never again interfere with that 
borough. Then the Black Book, as it is called, in which all 
places and pensions are exhibited, has struck terror into all 
who are named and virtuous indignation into all who are 
not. Nothing can be more mat a propos than the appear- 



80 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

ance of this book at such a season, when there is such dis- 
content about our institutions and such unceasing endea- 
vours to bring them into contempt. The history of the book 
is this : — Graham moved last year for a return of all Privy 
Councillors who had more than 1,000Z. a year, and Goulburn 
chose to give him a return of all persons who had more than 
1,000?. a year, because he thought the former return would 
be invidious to Privy Councillors ; so he caused that to be 
published, which will remove no obloquy from those he meant 
to save, but draw down a great deal on hundreds of others, 
and on the Government under which such things exist. I 
speak feelingly, for 6 quorum pars magna sum.' 

The Duke of Wellington gave a great dinner yesterday 
to all the people who had gone out of office (about fifty), so 
that it is clear they mean to keep together. Whether he 
looks forward to be Prime Minister again it is impossible to 
say, but his real friends would prefer his taking the command 
of the army, whatever his fools and flatterers may do. Lord 
Lyndhurst, who loses everything by the fall of the late 
Government, cannot get over it, particularly as he feels that 
the Duke's obstinacy brought it about, and that by timely 
concessions and good management he might have had Lord 
Grey, Palmerston, and all that are worth having. Peel, on 
the contrary, is delighted ; he wants leisure, is glad to get 
out of such a firm, and will have time to form his own plans 
and avail himself of circumstances, which, according to every 
probability, must turn out in his favour. His youth (for a 
public man), experience, and real capacity for business will 
inevitably make him Minister hereafter. The Duke of 
Wellington's fall, 1 if the causes of it are dispassionately 
traced and considered, affords a great political lesson. His 

1 [The following passage will no doubt be read with surprise, for in 
later years Mr. Greville became and remained one of the Duke's most 
steady admirers, and as he has himself stated in the memorandum written 
nineteen years afterwards, which is inserted at the end of it, the opinion 
he entertained of him at this time was unjust. But he at the same time 
decided ' to leave it as it is, because it is of the essence of these Memoirs not 
to soften or tone down judgments by the light of altered convictions, but 
to leave them standing as contemporary evidence of what was thought at 
the time they were written.' These are his own words.] 



1830] POLITICAL CHAEACTEE OF WELLINGTON. 81 

is one of those mixed characters which it is difficult to praise 
or blame without the risk of doing them more or less than 
justice. He has talents which the event has proved to be 
sufficient to make him the second (and, now that Napoleon 
is gone, the first general) of the age, but which could not 
make him a tolerable Minister. Confident, presumptuous, 
and dictatorial, but frank, open, and good-humoured, he 
contrived to rule in the Cabinet without mortifying his 
colleagues, and he has brought it to ruin without forfeiting 
their regard. Choosing with a very slender stock of know- 
ledge to take upon himself the sole direction of every depart- 
ment of Government, he completely sank under the burden. 
Originally imbued with the principles of Lord Castlereagh 
and the Holy Alliance, he brought all those predilections 
with him into office. Incapable of foreseeing the mighty 
events with which the future was big, and of comprehending 
the prodigious alterations which the moral character of 
Europe had undergone, he pitted himself against Canning in 
the Cabinet, and stood up as the assertor of maxims both of 
foreign and domestic policy which that great statesman saw 
were no longer fitted for the times we live in. With a 
flexibility which was more remarkably exhibited at subse- 
quent periods, when he found that the cause he advocated 
was lost, the Duke turned suddenly round, and surrendered 
his opinions at discretion ; but in his heart he never forgave 
Mr. Canning, and from that time jealousy of him had a 
material influence on his political conduct, and was the 
primary motive of many of his subsequent resolutions. This 
flexibility has been the cause of great benefits to the country, 
but ultimately of his own downfall, for it has always pro- 
ceeded from the pressure of circumstances and considerations 
of convenience to himself, and not from a rational adaptation 
of his opinions and conduct to the necessities and variations 
of the times. He has not been thoroughly true to any prin- 
ciple or an} 7- party ; he contrived to disgust and alienate his 
old friends and adherents without conciliating or attaching 
those whose measures he at the eleventh hour undertook to 
carry into execution. Through the whole course of his 

VOL. II. G 



82 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

political conduct selfish considerations have never been out 
of sight. His opposition to Canning's Corn Bill was too 
gross to admit of excuse. It was the old spite bursting forth, 
sharpened by Canning's behaviour to him in forming his 
Administration, which, if it was not contumelious, certainly 
was not courteous. When at his death the Duke assumed 
the Government, his disclaiming speech was thrown in his 
teeth, but without much justice, for such expressions are 
never to be taken literally, and in the subsequent quarrel 
with Huskisson, though it is probably true that he was 
aiming at domination, he was persuaded that Huskisson and 
his party were endeavouring to form a cabal in the Cabinet, 
and his expulsion of them is not, therefore, altogether without 
excuse. On the question of the Test Act it was evident he 
was guided by no principle, probably by no opinion, and that 
he only thought of turning it as best he might to his own 
advantage. Throughout the Catholic question self was 
always apparent, not that he was careless of the safety, or 
indifferent to the prosperity of the country, but that he cared 
as much for his own credit and power, and never considered 
the first except in their connection with the second. The 
business of Emancipation he certainly conducted with con- 
siderable judgment, boldly trusting to the baseness of many 
of his old friends, and showing that he had not mistaken 
their characters ; exercising that habitual influence he had ac- 
quired over the mind of the King ; preserving impenetrable 
secresy ; using without scruple every artifice that could 
forward his object ; and contriving to make tools or dupes of 
all his colleagues and adherents, and getting the whole merit 
to himself. From the passing of the Catholic question his 
conduct has exhibited a series of blunders which have at 
length terminated in his fall. The position in which he then 
stood was this : — He had a Government composed of men 
who were for the most part incompetent, but perfectly sub- 
servient to him. He had a considerable body of adherents 
in both Houses. The Whigs, whose support (enthusiastically 
given) had carried him triumphantly through the great con- 
test, were willing to unite with him : the Tories, exasperated 



1830] POLITICAL CHARACTER OF WELLINGTON. 83 

and indignant, feeling insulted and betrayed, vowed nothing 
but vengeance. Intoxicated with his victory, he was resolved 
to neglect the Whigs, to whom he was so much indebted, 
and to regain the affections of the Tories, whom he con- 
sidered as his natural supporters, and w T hom he thought 
identity of opinion and interest would bring back to his 
standard. By all sorts of slights and affronting insinuations 
that they wanted place, but that he could do without them, 
he offended the Whigs, but none of his cajoleries and ad- 
vances had the least effect on the sulky Tories. It was in 
vain that he endeavoured to adapt his foreign policy to their 
worst prejudices by opposing with undeviating hostility that, 
of Mr. Canning (the great object of their detestation), and. 
disseminating throughout all Europe the belief of his attach- 
ment to ultra-monarchical principles. He opposed the spirit 
of the age, he brought England into contempt, but he did 
not conciliate the Tories. Having succeeded in uniting two 
powerful parties (acting separately) in opposition to his 
Government, and having nobody but Peel to defend his 
measures in the House of Commons, and nobody in the 
House of Lords, he manifested his sense of his own weakness 
by overtures and negotiations, and evinced his obstinate 
tenacity of power by never offering terms which could be 
accepted, or extending his invitations to those whose authority 
he thought might cope with his own. With his Government 
falling every day in public opinion, and his enemies growing, 
more numerous and confident, with questions of vast impor- 
tance rising up with a vigour and celerity of growth which 
astonished the world, he met a new Parliament (constituted 
more unfavourably than the last, which he had found himself 
unable to manage) without any support but in his own con- 
fidence and the encouraging adulation of a little knot of 
devotees. There still lingered round him some cf that 
popularity which had once been so great, and which the re- 
collection of his victories would not suffer to be altogether 
extinguished. By a judicious accommodation of his conduct 
to that public opinion which was running with an uncon- 
trollable tide, by a frank invitation to all who were well dis- 

G 2 



84 EEIQN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

posed to strengthen his Government, he might have raised 
those embers of popularity into a flame once more, have saved 
himself, and still done good service to the State ; but it was 
decreed that he should fall. He appeared bereft of all judg- 
ment and discretion, and after a King's Speech which gave 
great, and I think unnecessary offence, he delivered the 
famous philippic against Eeform which sealed his fate. 
From that moment it was not doubtful, and he was hurled 
from the seat of power amidst universal acclamations. 

[Memorandum added by Mr. Greville in April 1850.] 

N.B. — I leave this as it is, though it is unjust to the 
Duke of Wellington ; but such as my impressions were at 
the time they shall remain, to be corrected afterwards when 
necessary. It would be very wrong to impute selfishness to 
him in the ordinary sense of the term. He coveted power, 
but he was perfectly disinterested, a great patriot if ever 
there was one, and he was always animated by a strong and 
abiding sense of duty. I have done him justice in other 
places, and there is after all a great deal of truth in what I 
have said here. 

December 12th. — For the last few days the accounts from 
the country have been better ; there are disturbances in 
different parts, and alarms given, but the mischief seems to 
be subsiding. The burnings go on, and though they say 
that one or two incendiaries have been taken up, nothing 
has yet been discovered likely to lead to the detection of the 
.system. I was at Court on Wednesday, when Kemp and 
Foley were sworn in, the first for the Ordnance, the other 
d-old Stick (the pensioners). He refused it for a long time, 
hut at last submitted to what he thought infra dig., because 
it was to be sugared with the Lieutenancy of Worcestershire. 
There was an Admiralty report, 1 at which the Chief Justice 
was not present. The Chancellor and the Judge (Sir C. 

1 [The High Court of Admiralty had still a criminal jurisdiction, and 
the capital cases were submitted to the King in Council for approval.] 



1830] AN ESCAPE FE031 THE GALLOWS. 85 

Robinson) were there for the first time, and not a soul knew 
what was the form or what ought to be done ; they did, 
however, just as in the Recorder's reports. Brougham leans 
to ruercy, I see. But wliat a curious sort of supplementary 
trial this is ; how many accidents may determine the life or 
death of the culprit. In one case in this report which they 
were discussing (before the Council) Brougham had for- 
gotten that the man was recommended to mercy, but he told 
me that at the last Recorder's report there was a great 
difference of opinion on one (a forgery case), when Tenterden 
was for hanging the man and he for saving him ; that he 
had it put to the vote, and the man was saved. Little did 
the criminal know when there was a change of Ministry that 
he owed his life to it, for if Lyndhurst had been Chancellor 
he would most assuredly have been hanged ; not that 
Lyndhurst was particularly severe or cruel, but he would 
have concurred with the Chief Justice and have regarded 
the case solely in a judicial point of view, whereas the mind 
of the other was probably biassed by some theory about the 
crime of forgery or by some fancy of his strange brain. 

This was a curious case, as I have since heard. The man 
owes his life to the curiosity of a woman of fashion, and 
then to another feeling.. Lady Burghersh and Lady Glen- 
gall wanted to hear St. John Long's trial (the quack who 
had man-slaughtered Miss Cashir), and they went to the 
Old Bailey for that purpose. Castlereagh and somebody 
else, who of course were not up in time, were to have at- 
tended them. They wanted an escort, and the only man in 
London sure to be out of bed so early was the Master of the 
Rolls, so they went and carried him off. When they got to 
the court there was no St. John Long, but they thought 
they might as well stay and hear whatever was going on. 
It chanced that a man was tried for an atrocious case of 
forgery and breach of trust. He was found guilty and 
sentence passed ; but he was twenty-three and good-looking. 
Lady Burghersh could not bear he should be hanged, and 
she went to all the late Ministers and the Judges to beg 
him off. Leach told her it was no use, that nothing could 






86 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

• 
save that man ; and accordingly the old Government were 
obdurate, when out they went. Off she went again and 
attacked all the new ones, who in better humour, or of softer 
natures, suffered themselves to be persuaded, and the wretch 
was saved. She went herself to Newgate to see him, but 
I never heard if she had a private interview, and if he 
was afforded an opportunity of expressing his gratitude 
with all the fervour that the service she had done him 
demanded. 

In the meantime the Government is going on what is 
called well — that is, there is a great disposition to give them 
a fair trial. All they have done and promise to do about 
economy gives satisfaction, and Reform (the awful question) 
is still at a distance. There has been, however, some sharp 
skirmishing in the course of the week, and there is no want 
of bitterness and watchfulness on the part of the old Govern- 
ment. In the Committee which has been named to enquire 
into the salaries of the Parliamentary offices they mean to 
leave the question in the hands of the country gentlemen ; 
but they do not think any great reductions will be practi- 
cable, and as Baring is chairman it is not probable that much 
will be done. They think Brougham speaks too often in the 
House of Lords, but he has done very well there ; and on 
Friday he made a reply to Lord Stanhope, which was the 
most beautiful piece of sarcasm and complete cutting-up 
(though with very good humour) that ever was heard, and 
an exhibition to the like of which the Lords have not been 
accustomed. The Duke of Wellington made another im- 
prudent speech, in which (in answer to Lord Radnor, who 
attributed the state of the country to the late Government) 
he said that it was attributable to the events of July and 
August in other countries, and spoke of them in a way 
which showed clearly his real opinion and feelings on the 
subject. 

After some delay Lord Lansdowne made up his mind to 
fill up the vacancy in my office, and to give it to William 
Bathurst ; but he first spoke to the King, who said it was 
very true he had told Lord Bathurst that his son should 



1S30] THE CLERKS OF THE COUNCIL. 87 

have it, but that he now left the matter entirely to his 
decision, showing no anxiety to have William Bathurst 
appointed. However, he has it, but reduced to 1,200?. a 
year. I was agreeably surprised yesterday by a communi- 
cation from Lord Lansdowne that he thought no alteration 
could be made in my emoluments, and that he was quite pre- 
pared to defend them if anybody attacked them. Still, 
though it is a very good thing to be so supported, I don't 
consider myself safe from Parliamentary assaults. In these 
times it will not do to be idle, and I told Lord Lansdowne 
that I was anxious to keep my emoluments, but ready to 
work for them, and proposed that we Clerks of the Council 
should be called upon to act really at the Board of Trade, as 
we are, in fact, bound to do ; by which means Lack's place 
when vacant need not be filled up, and a saving would be 
made. My predecessors Cottrell and Fawkener always acted, 
their successors Buller and Chetwynd were incompetent, and 
Lack, the Chancellor's Clerk, was made Assistant- Secretary, 
and did the work. Huskisson and Hume, his director, made 
the business a science ; new Presidents and Vice-Presidents 
succeeded one another in different Ministerial revolutions ; 
they and Lack were incompetent, and Hume was made 
Assistant- Secretary, and it is he who advises, directs, 
legislates. I believe he is one of the ablest practical men 
who have ever served, more like an American statesman than 
an English official. I am anxious to begin my Trade 
education under him. 

Parliament is going to adjourn directly for three or four 
weeks, to give the Ministers time to make their arrangements 
and get rid of the load of business which besets them ; 
although there is every disposition to give them credit for 
good intentions, and to let them have a fair trial, there are 
not wanting causes of discontent in many quarters. 

All the Eussells are dissatisfied that Lord John has not a 
seat in the Cabinet, and that Graham should be preferred to 
him, and the more so because they know or believe that his 
preference is owing to Lambton, who does what he likes with 
Lord Grey. My mind has always misgiven me about Lord 



88 EEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

Grey, and what I have lately heard of him satisfies me that 
a more overrated man never lived, or one whose speaking- 
was so far above his general abilities, or who owed so much 
to his oratorical plausibility. His tall, commanding, and 
dignified appearance, his flow of language, graceful action, 
well rounded periods, and an exhibition of classical taste 
united with legal knowledge, render him the most finished 
orator of his day; but his conduct has shown him to be 
influenced by pride, still more by vanity, personal antipathies, 
caprice, indecision, and a thousand weaknesses generated by 
these passions and defects. Anybody who is constantly with 
him and who can avail themselves of his vanity can govern 
him. There was a time when Sir Eobert Wilson was his 
'magnus Apollo' (and Codrington), till they quarrelled. 
Now Lambton is all in all with him. Lambton dislikes the 
Bussells, and hence Lord John's exclusion and the preference 
of Graham. Everybody remembers how Lord Grey refused 
to lead the Whig party when Canning formed his junction 
with the Whigs, and declared that he abdicated in favour 
of Lord Lansdowne; and then how he came and made 
that violent speech against Canning which half killed him 
with vexation, and in consequence of which he meant to 
have moved into the House of Lords for the express pur- 
pose of attacking Lord Grey. Then when he had quarrelled 
with his old Whig friends he began to approach the Tories, 
the object of his constant aversion and contempt; and 
we knew what civilities passed between the Bathursts and 
him, and what political coquetries between him and the 
Duke of Wellington, and how he believed that it was only 
George IY. who prevented his being invited by the Duke to 
join him. Then George IY. dies, King William succeeds ; 
no invitation to Lord Grey, and he plunges into furious 
opposition to the Duke. 

About three years ago the Chancellor, Lyndhurst, was the 
man in the world he abhorred the most ; and it was about 
this time that I well recollect one night at Madame de 
Lieven's I introduced Lord Grey to Lady Lyndhurst. We 
had dined together somewhere, and he had been praising her 



1830] LOED GKEY AND LOKD LYNI)HUEST. 89 

beauty; so when we all met there I presented him, and 
very soon all his antipathies ceased and he and Lyndhurst 
became great friends. This was the cause of Lady Lynd- 
hurst's partiality for the Whigs, which enraged the Tory 
ladies and some of their lords so much, but which served 
her turn and enabled her to keep two hot irons in the fire. 
When the Duke went out Lord Grey was very anxious to 
keep Lyndhurst as his Chancellor, and would have done so 
if it had not been for Brougham, who, whirling Reform in 
terror eon over his head, announced to him that it must not 
be. Reluctantly enough Grey was obliged to give way, for 
he saw that with Brougham in the House of Commons, 
against him he could not stand for five minutes, and that 
the only alternative was to put Brougham on the Wool- 
sack. Hence his delay in sending for Brougham, the lat- 
ter 's speech and subsequent acceptance of the Great Seal. 
Grey, however, was still anxious to serve Lyndhurst, and 
to neutralise his opposition has now proposed to him to 
be Chief Baron. This is tempting to a necessitous and 
ambitious man. On the other hand he had a good game 
before him, if he had played it well, and that was to regain 
character, exhibit his great and general powers, and be 
ready to avail himself of the course of events ; but he has 
made his bargain and pocketed his pride. He takes the 
judicial office upon an understanding that he is to have no 
political connection with the Government (though of course 
he will not oppose them), and that he is to be Chief Justice 
on Tenterden's death or retirement. This is the secret 
article of the treaty, and altogether he has not done amiss ; 
for there are so few Chancellors in the field that he will 
probably (if he chooses) return to the Woolsack in the 
event of a change of Government, and he is now in a 
position in which he may join either party, and that without 
any additional loss of character. The public will gain by 
the transaction, because they will get a good judge. 

In Ireland the Government have made a change (the 
motives of which are not apparent) which will be very un- 
popular, and infallibly get them into trouble in various ways. 



90 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

They have removed Hart and made Plunket Chancellor. 
Hart was very popular with the Bar ; he was slow, but had 
introduced order and regularity in the proceedings of the 
Court. There were no arrears and no appeals. Plunket is 
unpopular, and was a bad judge in the Common Pleas, and 
will probably make a worse Chancellor ; he is rash, hasty, 
and imprudent, and it is the more extraordinary as Hart was 
affronted by Goderich and went with Anglesey, so upon the 
score of confidence (on which they put it) there is in fact not 
a pretext for it. 

As yet not much can be known of the efficiency of the 
rest of the Ministers. The only one who has had anything 
to do is Melbourne, and he has surprised all those about him 
by a sudden display of activity and vigour, rapid and diligent 
transaction of business, for which nobody was prepared, and 
which will prove a great mortification to Peel and his friends, 
who were in hopes he would do nothing and let the country 
be burnt and plundered without interruption. The Duke of 
Richmond has plunged neck-deep in politics, and says he is 
delighted with it all, and with Lord Grey's candour and un- 
assuming bearing in the Cabinet. He is evidently piqued that 
none of his party have followed him, and made a speech in 
the House of Lords the other night expressing his readiness 
to defend his having taken office, when nobody attacked him. 
Knowing him as I do, and the exact extent of his capacity, 
I fancy he must feel rather small by the side of Lord Grey 
and Brougham. Graham's elevation is the most monstrous 
of all. He was once my friend, a college intimacy revived 
in the world, and which lasted six months, when, thinking he 
could do better, he cut me, as he had done others before. I 
am not a fair judge of him, because the pique which his 
conduct to me naturally gave me would induce me to under- 
rate him, but I take vanity and self-sufficiency to be the pro- 
minent features of his character, though of the extent of his 
capacity I will give no opinion. Let time show ; I think he 
will fail. [Time did show it to be very considerable, and the 
volvenda, dies brought back our former friendship, as will 
hereafter appear ; he certainly did not fail.] 



1830] SIB JAMES GRAHAM. 91 

He came into Parliament ten years ago, spoke and failed. 
He had been a provincial hero, the Cicero and the Romeo of 
Yorkshire and Cumberland, a present Lovelace and a future 
Pitt. He was disappointed in love (the particulars are of 
no consequence), married and retired to digest his mortifica- 
tions of various kinds, to become a country gentleman, 
patriot, reformer, financier, and what not, always good- 
looking (he had been very handsome), pleasing, intelligent, 
cultivated, agreeable as a man can be who is not witty and 
who is rather pompous and slow, after many years of retire- 
ment, in the course of which he gave to the world his lucu- 
brations on corn and currency. Time and the hour made 
him master of a large but encumbered estate and member 
for his county. Armed with the importance of representing 
a great constituency, he started again in the House of 
Commons ; took up Joseph Hume's line, but ornamented it 
with graces and flourishes which had not usually decorated 
such dry topics. He succeeded, and in that line is now the 
best speaker in the House. I have no doubt he has studied 
his subjects and practised himself in public speaking. Years 
and years ago I remember his delight on Hume's comparison 
between Demosthenes and Cicero, and how he knew the 
passage by heart ; but it is one thing to attack strong abuses 
and fire off well-rounded set phrases, another to administer 
the naval affairs of the country and be ready to tilt against 
all comers, as he must do for the future. 1 Palmerston is said 
to have given the greatest satisfaction to the foreign 
Ministers, and to have begun very well. So much for the 
Ministers. 

December 14th. — There is a delay in Lyndhurst's appoint- 
ment, if it takes place at all. Alexander 2 now will not resign, 

1 [This opinion of Sir James Graham is the more curious as he after- 
wards became one of Mr. Greville's confidential friends, and rose to the 
first rank of oratory and authority in the House of Commons. As Secre- 
tary of State for the Home Department in the great Administration of Sir 
Robert Peel he showed administrative ability of the highest order, and he 
was, perhaps, the most trusted colleague of that illustrious chief. The 
principal failing of Sir James Graham was, in truth, that he was not so 
brave and bold a man as he looked.] 

2 [The Chief Baron.] 



92 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

though he himself proposed to do so in the first instance. 
His physician signed a certificate to say that if he went on 
this Committee it would cost him his life ; some difficulty 
about the pension is the cause, or the peerage that he wants. 
He is seventy-six and very rich, a wretched judge, and 
never knew anything of Common Law. If it is not arranged, 
it will be a bad business for Lyndhurst, for the Duke and his 
friends are grievously annoyed at his taking the office, having 
counted on him as their great champion in the House of 
Lords. Mrs. Arbuthnot told me the other night that they 
considered themselves released from all obligations to him 
for the future. However, they have not at all quarrelled, 
and they knew his deplorable state in point of money. 
Dined yesterday at Agar Ellis's with eighteen people. 
Brougham in great force and very agreeable, and told some 
stories of Judge Allan Park, who is a most ridiculous man, 
and yet a good lawyer, a good judge, and was a most 
eminent counsel. 

Park is extraordinarily ridiculous. He is a physiognomist, 
and is captivated by pleasant looks. In a certain cause, in 
which a boy brought an action for defamation against his 
schoolmaster, Campbell, his counsel, asked the solicitor if the 
boy was good-looking. i Very.' ' Oh, then, have him in court; 
we shall get a verdict.' And so he did. His eyes are always 
wandering about, watching and noticing everything and 
everybody. One day there was a dog in court making a 
disturbance, on which he said, ' Take away that dog.' The 
officers went to remove another dog, when he interposed. 
6 No, not that dog. I have had my eye on that dog the whole 
day, and I will say that a better behaved little dog I never 
saw in a court of justice.' 

One of Brougham's best speeches was one of his last at 
the Bar, made in moving for a new trial on the ground 
of misdirection in a great cause (Tatham and Wright) 
about a will. He said that on that occasion Park did what 
he thought no man's physical powers were equal to ; he 
spoke in summing up for eleven hours and a half, and 
was as fresh at the end as at the beginning ; the trial lasted 



1830] LORD LYNDHURST AND THE WHIGS. 93 

eight days. This same evening Lord Grosvenor, who is by 
wav of beinsr a friend to Government, made an amicable 
attack upon everything, and talked nonsense. Lord Grey 
answered him, and defended his own family appointments in 
a very good speech. 

December 15th. — Dined yesterday with Lord Dudley ; sat 
next to Lady Lyndhurst, and had a great deal of talk about 
politics. She said that the Duke never consulted or communi- 
cated with the Chancellor, who never heard of his overtures to 
Palmers ton till Madame de Lieven told him ; that he had 
repeatedly remonstrated with the Duke upon going on in 
his weakness, and on one occasion had gone to Walmer on 
purpose (leaving her behind that he might talk more freely) 
to urge him to take in Lord Grey and some of that part} r , 
but he would not ; said he had tried to settle with them, and 
it would not do ; had tried individuals and had tried the 
party. Up to a very late period it appears that Lord Grey 
would have joined him, and Lambton came to her repeatedly 
to try and arrange something ; but this answer of the Duke's 
put it out of the question. Then after Lord Grey made his 
hostile speech it seems as if the Duke wanted to get him, 
for one day Jersey made an appointment with Lady Lynd- 
hurst, never having called upon her in his life before, came, 
and entreated her to try and bring about an accommodation 
with Lord Grey, not making use of the Duke's name, but 
saying he and Lady Jersey were so unhappy that the Duke 
and Lord Grey should not be on good terms, and were so 
anxious for the junction ; but it was too late then, and the 
Lyndhursts themselves had something else to look to. They 
both knew very well that Brougham alone prevented his 
remaining on the Woolsack, still they have very wisely not 
quarrelled with him. After dinner I took Lyndhurst to 
Lady Dudley Stuart's, arid had some more talk with him. He 
thinks, as I do, that this Government does not promise to be 
strong. What passed in the House of Commons the other 
night exhibited deplorable weakness and the necessity of 
depending upon the caprices of hundreds of loose votes, 
without anything like a party with which they could venture 



94 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

to oppose popular doctrines or measures. He thinks that 
Peel must be Minister if there is not a revolution, and that 
the Duke's being Prime Minister again is out of the question ; 
says he Icnoivs Peel would never consent to act with him 
again in the same capacity, that all the Duke's little cabinet 
(the women and the toad-eaters) hate Peel, and that there 
never was any real cordiality between them. Everything 
confirms my belief that Peel, if he did not bring about the 
dissolution of the late Ministry by any overt act, saw to what 
things were tending, and saw it with satisfaction. 

December 16th. — At Court yesterday; William Bathurst 
sworn in. All the Ministers were there, and the Duke of Wel- 
lington at the levee looking out of sorts. Dined at the 
Lievens' ; Lady Cowper told me that in the summer the Duke 
had not made a direct offer to Melbourne, but what was tan- 
tamount to it. He had desired somebody (she did not say 
who) to speak to Frederick, 1 and said he would call on him 
himself the next day. Something, however, prevented him, 
and she did not say whether he did calk or not afterwards. 
He denied ever having made any overture at all. To Pal- 
merston he proposed the choice of four places, and she thinks 
he would have taken in Huskisson if the latter had lived. 
He would have done nothing but on compulsion; that is 
clear. It is very true (what they say Peel said of him) that 
no man ever had any influence with him, only women, and 
those always the silliest. But who are Peel's confidants, 
friends, and parasites ? Bonham, a stock-jobbing ex-mer- 
chant ; Charles Eoss, and the refuse of society of the House 
of Commons. 

Lamb told me afterwards, talking of the Duke and 
Polignac, that Sebastiani had told him that Hyde de Neu- 
ville (who was Minister at the time Polignac went over from 
here on his first short visit, before he became Minister) said 
that upon that occasion Polignac took over a letter from the 
Duke to the King of France, in which he said that the Cham- 
bers and the democraiical spirit required to be curbed, that 
he advised him to lose no time in restraining them, and that 

1 [Sir Frederick Lamb.] 



1830] THE KUTG AND HIS SOXS. 95 

lie referred liim to M. de Polignac for his opinion generally, 
who was in possession of his entire confidence. I think this 
may be true, never having doubted that these were his real 
sentiments, whether he expressed them or not. 

There has been a desperate quarrel between the King and 
his sons. George Fitzclarence wanted to be made a Peer 
and have a pension ; the King said he could not do it, so 
they struck work in a body, and George resigned his office 
of Deputy Adjutant-General and wrote the King a furious 
letter. The King sent for Lord Hill, and told him to try 
and bring him to his senses; but Lord Hill could do nothing, 
and then he sent for Brougham to talk to him about it. It is 
not yet made up, but one of them (Frederick, I believe) dined 
at the dinner the King gave the day before yesterday. They 
want to renew the days of Charles II., instead of waiting 
patiently and letting the King do what he can for them, and 
as he can. 

The affair at Warsaw seems to have begun with a con- 
spiracy against Constantine, and four of the generals who 
were killed perished in his anteroom in defending him. 
"With the smallest beginnings, however, nothing is more 
probable than a general rising in Poland; and what between 
that, Belgians, and Piedmont, which is threatened with a 
revolution, the Continent is in a promising state. I agree 
with Lamb, who says that such an imbroglio as this cannot 
be got right without a war; such a flame can only be quenched 
by blood. 

December 19tJi. — The week has closed without much 
gain to the new Government. On the debate in the House 
of Commons about the Evesham election they did not dare 
go to a division, as they would certainly have been beaten, 
but Peel made a speech which was very good in itself, 
and received in a way which proved that he has more con- 
sideration out of office than any of the Ministers, and much 
more than he ever had when he was in. Men are looking 
more and more to him, and if there is not a revolution he 
will assuredly be Prime Minister. The Government is fully 
aware how little strength they have, so they have taken a 



96 KEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

new line, and affect to carry on the Government without 
Parliamentary influence, and to throw themselves and their 
measures upon the impartial judgment of the House. Sefton 
informed me the other night that they had resolved not to 
take upon themselves the responsibility of proposing any 
renewal of the Civil List, but to refer the whole question to 
Parliament. T told him that I thought such conduct equally 
foolish and unjust, and that it amounted to an abdication of 
their Ministerial functions, and a surrender of them into the 
hands of the Legislative power ; in itself amounting to a 
revolution not of dynasty and institutions, but of system of 
Government in this country. He is the dme damnee of Lord 
Grey, and defends everything of course. 

O'Connell is gone rabid to Ireland, having refused a silk 
gown and resolved to pull down Lord Anglesey's popularity. 
Shiel writes word that they have resolved not to give Lord 
Anglesey a public reception, and to propose an ovation for 
O'Connell. The law appointments there, made without any 
adequate reason, have been ingeniously contrived so as to 
disgust every party in Ireland, and to do, or promise to do, 
in their ultimate results as much harm as possible. So much 
for the only act that the Ministers have yet performed. 

I had some conversation with Lyndhurst yesterday, who 
thinks the way is already preparing for Peel's return to office, 
and that he must be Prime Minister. I told him that I 
thought Peel had a fine game to play, but that his own was 
just as good, as Peel could do nothing without him in the 
other House ; to which he replied that they should have no 
difficulty, and could make a Government if the Duke of 
Wellington did not interpose his claims and aspire again to 
be at the head ; to which I said that they must not listen to 
it, as the country would not bear it ; he said he was afraid 
the Duke's own set and his women were encouraging him in 
such views. Now that it is all over his own Cabinet admit as 
freely as anybody his Ministerial despotism. Lyndhurst 
partakes of the general alarm at the state of affairs, and of 
the astonishment which I and others feel at the apathy of 
those who are most interested in averting the impending 



1830] BISHOP OF EXETEE AND LORD MELBOURNE. 97 

danger. Yesterday Mr. Stapleton (Canning's late private 
secretary) called on me to discuss this subject, and the pro- 
priety and feasibility cf setting up some dyke to arrest the 
torrent of innovation and revolution that is bursting in on 
every side. All the press almost is silenced, or united on 
the other side. c John Bull ' alone fights ;fche battle, but 
' John Bull ' defends so many indefensible things that its 
advocacy is not worth much. An anti-Radical upon the 
plan of the Anti-Jacobin might be of some use, provided it 
was well sustained. I wrote a letter }^esterday to Barnes, 1 
remonstrating upon the general tone of the 'Times,' and 
inviting him to adopt some Conservative principles in the 
midst of his zeal for Reform. Stanley told me that his 
election (at Preston) was lost by the stupidity or ill-will of 
the returning officer, who managed the booths in such a 
way that Hunt's voters were enabled to vote over and over 
at different booths, and that he had no doubt of reducing 
his majority on a scrutiny. 

December 22nd. — Dudley showed me Phillpotts' (Bishop 
of Exeter) correspondence with Melbourne and minutes of 
conversation on the subject of the commendam of the living 
of Stanhope ; trimming letters. The Bishop made proposals 
to the Government which they rejected, and at last, after 
writing one of the ablest letters I ever read, in which he 
exposed their former conduct and present motives, he said 
that as the Ministers had thought fit to exert the power they 
had over him, he should show them that he had some over 
them, and appeal to public opinion to decide between them. 
On this they gave way, and agreed to an arrangement which, 
if not satisfactory to him, will leave him as to income not 
much worse off than he was before. 

December 2%rd. — Last night to Wilmot Horton's second 
lecture at the Mechanics' Institute ; I could not go to the 
first. He deserves great credit for his exertions, the object 
of which is to explain to the labouring classes some of the 

1 [Mr. Barnes was then editor of the 'Times' newspaper, and retained 
that position till his death in 1841. Mr. Greville was well acquainted with 
him, and had a high opinion of his talents, character, and influence.] 

VOL. II. H 

f 



98 EEIQN OF WILLIAM IV. |_Chap. XIII. 

truths of political economy, the folly of thinking that the 
breaking of machinery will better their condition, and of 
course the efficacy of his own plan of emigration. The com- 
pany was respectable enough, and they heard him with great 
attention. He is full of zeal and animation, but so totally 
without method and arrangement that he is hardly intelli- 
gible. The conclusion, which was an attack on Cobbett, was 
well done and even eloquent. There were a good many 
women, and several wise men, such as Dr. Birkbeck, 
M'Culloch, and Owen of Lanark. 

O'Connell had a triumphant entry into Dublin, and 
advised that no honours should be shown to Lord Anglesey. 
They had an interview of two hours in London, when Lord 
Anglesey asked him what he intended to do. He said, 
' Strive totis viribus to effect a repeal of the Union ; ' when 
Lord Anglesey told him that he feared he should then be 
obliged to govern Ireland by force, so that they are at daggers 
drawn. There is not a doubt that Repeal is making rapid 
advances. Moore l told me that he had seen extraordinary 
signs of it, and that men of the middle classes, intelligent 
and well educated, wished for it, though they knew the dis- 
advantages that would attend a severance of their connection 
with England. He said that he could understand it, for as 
an Irishman he felt it himself. 

Boehamjpton, December 26th. — At Lord Clifden's ; Luttrell, 
Byng, and Dudley; the latter very mad, did nothing but 
soliloquise, walk about, munch, and rail at Reform of every 
kind. Lord Anglesey has entered Dublin amidst silence and 
indifference, all produced by Q'ConnelPs orders, whose entry 
was greeted by the acclamations of thousands, and his 
speeches then and since have been more violent than ever. 
His authority and popularity are unabated, and he is em- 
ploying them to do all the mischief he can, his first object 
being to make friends of the Orangemen, to whom he affects 
to humble himself, and he has on all public occasions caused 
the orange ribband to be joined with the green. 

We had a meeting at the Council Office on Friday to 

1 [Thomas Moore, the poet] 



1830] LOED ANGLESEY AND O'CONNELL. 99 

order a prayer c on account of the troubled state of certain 
parts of the United Kingdom ' — great nonsense. 

The King of the French has put an end to the disturb- 
ances of Paris about the sentence on the ex-Ministers by a 
gallant coup d'etat. At night, when the streets were most 
crowded and agitated, he sallied from the Palais Eoyal on 
horseback, with his son, the Due de Nemours, and his 
personal cortege, and paraded through Paris for two hours. 
This did the business ; he was received with shouts of 
aj^plause, and at once reduced everything to tranquillity. 
He deserves his throne for this, and will probably keep it. 

December 30th. — Notwithstanding the conduct of King 
Louis Philippe, and the happy termination of the disorders 
and tumults at Paris last week, the greatest alarm still pre- 
vails about the excitement in that place. In consequence of 
the Chamber of Deputies having passed some resolutions 
altering the constitution of the National Guard, and voting- 
the post of Commandant-General unnecessary, Lafayette re- 
signed and has been replaced by Lobau. I never remember 
times like these, nor read of such — the terror and lively 
expectation which prevail, and the way in which people's 
minds are turned backwards and forwards from France to 
Ireland, then range excursively to Poland or Piedmont, and 
fix again on the burnings, riots, and executions here. 

Lord Anglesey's entry into Dublin turned out not to have 
been so mortifying to him as was at first reported. He was 
attended by a great number of people, and by all the most 
eminent and respectable in Dublin, so much so that he was 
very well pleased, and found it better than he expected. 
War broke out between him and O'Connell without loss of 
time. O'Connell had intended to have a procession of the 
trades, and a notice from him was to have been published 
and stuck over the door of every chapel and public place in 
Dublin. Anglesey issued his proclamation, and half an hour 
before the time when O'Connell's notice was to appear had it 
pasted up, and one copy laid on O'Connell's breakfast table, 
at which anticipation he chuckled mightily. O'Connell 
instantly issued a handbill desiring the people to obey, as if 



r 



)U 



100 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

the order of the Lord-Lieutenant was to derive its authority 
from his permission, and he afterwards made an able speech. 
Since the beginning of the world there never was so extra- 
ordinary and so eccentric a position as his. It is a moral 
power and influence as great in its way, and as strangely 
acquired, as Bonaparte's political power was. Utterly lost 
to all sense of shame and decency, trampling truth and 
honour under his feet, cast off by all respectable men, he 
makes his faults and his vices subservient to the extension 
of his influence, for he says and does whatever suits his 
purpose for the moment, secure that no detection or subse- 
quent exposure will have the slightest effect with those over 
whose minds and passions he rules, with such despotic sway. 
He cares not whom he insults, because, having covered his 
cowardice with the cloak of religious scruples, he is invulner- 
able, and will resent no retaliation that can be offered him. 
He has chalked out to himself a course of ambition which, 
though not of the highest kind — if the consentiens laus 
honorum is indispensable to the aspirations of noble minds — 
has everything in it that can charm a somewhat vulgar but 
highly active, restless, and imaginative being ; and nobody 
•can deny to him the praise of inimitable dexterity, versatility, 
and even prudence in the employment of the means which 
he makes conducive to his ends. He is thoroughly acquainted 
with the audiences which he addresses and the people upon 
whom he practises, and he operates upon their passions with 
the precision of a dexterous anatomist who knows the direc- 
tion of every muscle and fibre of the human frame. After 
having been throughout the Catholic question the furious 
enemy of the Orangemen, upon whom he lavished incessant 
and unmeasured abuse, he has suddenly turned round, and 
inviting them to join him on the Repeal question, has not 
only offered them a fraternal embrace and has humbled him- 
self to the dust in apologies and demands for pardon, but he 
has entirely and at once succeeded, and he is now as popular 
or more so with the Protestants (or rather Orangemen) as he 
was before with the Catholics, and Crampton writes word 
that the lower order of Protestants are with him to a man. 



1831J- A DINNER AT THE ATHEN^UM. 101 

1831. 

January 2nd. — Came up to town yesterday to dine with 
the Yilliers at a dinner of clever men, got up at the 
Athenseum, and was extremely bored. The original party 
was broken up by various excuses, and the vacancies sup- 
plied by men none of whom I knew. There were Poulett 
Thomson, three Yilliers, Taylor, Young, whom I knew; the 
rest I never saw before — Buller, Komilly, Senior, Maule, 1 a 
man whose name I forget, and Walker, a police magistrate, 
all men of more or less talent and information, and altogether 
producing anything but an agreeable party. Maule was 
senior wrangler and senior medallist at Cambridge, and is 
a lawyer. He was nephew to the man with whom I was at 
school thirty years ago, and I had never seen him since ; he 
was then a very clever boy, and assisted to teach the boys, 
being admirably well taught himself by his uncle, who was 
an excellent scholar and a great brute . I have young Maule 
now in my mind's eye suspended by the hair of his head 
while being well caned, and recollect as if it was yesterday 
his doggedly drumming a lesson of Terence into my dull and 
reluctant brain as we walked up and down the garden walk 
before the house. When I was introduced to him I had no 
recollection of him, but when I found out who he was I went 
up to him with the blandest manner as l^e sat reading a 
newspaper, and said that ' I believed we had once been well 
acquainted, though we had not met for twenty-seven years.' 
He looked up and said, ' Oh, it is too long ago to talk about,' 
and then turned back to his paper. So I set him down for a 
brute like his uncle and troubled him no further. I am very 
sure that dinners of all fools have as good a chance of being 
agreeable as dinners of all clever people ; at least the former 
are often gay, and the latter are frequently heavy. Nonsense 
and folly gilded over with good breeding and les usages du 
monde produce often more agreeable results than a collection 
of rude, awkward intellectual powers. 

Roeliampton, January 4th. — Called on Lady Canning this 

1 [ Afterwards Mr. Justice Maule.] 



102 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

morning, who wanted me to read some of her papers. Most 
of them (which are very curious) I had seen before, but for- 
gotten. I read the long minute of Canning's conversation 
with the King ten days before his Majesty put the formation 
of the Administration in his hands. They both appear to 
have been explicit enough. The King went through his 
whole life, and talked for two hours and a half, particularly 
about the Catholic question, on which he said he had always 
entertained the same opinions — the same as those of 
George III. and the Duke of York — and that with the 
speech of the latter he entirely concurred, except in the c so 
help me God' at the end, which he thought unnecessary. 
He said he had wished the Coronation Oath to be altered, 
and had proposed it to Lord Liverpool. His great anxiety 
was not to be annoyed with the discussion of the question, to 
keep Canning and Lord Liverpool's colleagues, and to put at 
the head of the Treasury some anti- Catholic Peer. This 
Canning would not hear of; he said that having lost Lord 
Liverpool he had lost his only support in the Cabinet, that 
the King knew how he had been thwarted by others, and 
how impossible it would have been for him to go on but for 
Lord Liverpool, that he could not serve under anybody else, 
or act with efficacy except as First Minister, that he would 
not afford in his person an example of any such rule as that 
support of the Catholic question was to be ipso facto an ex- 
clusion from the chief office of the Government, that he ad- 
vised the King to try and make an anti- Catholic Ministry, 
and thought that with his feelings and opinions on the 
subject it was what he ought to do. This the King said was 
out of the question. In the course of the discussion Canning 
said that if he continued in his service he must continue 
as free as he had been before ; that desirous as he was to 
contribute to the King's ease and comfort, he could not in 
any way pledge himself on the subject, because he should 
be assuredly questioned in the House of Commons, and he 
must have it in his power to reply that he was perfectly free 
to act on that question as he had ever done, and that he 
thought the King would better consult his own ease by 



1831] THE DUKE AND MR. CANNING. 103 

retaining him in office without any pledge, relying on his 
desire above all things to consult his Majesty's ease and 
comfort. He said among other things that, though leader 
of the House of Commons, he had never had any patronage 
placed at his disposal, nor a single place to give away. 

About the time of this conversation Canning was out of 
humour with the Duke of Wellington, for he had heard that 
many of the adherents of Government who pretended to be 
attached to the Duke had spoken of him (Canning) in the 
most violent and abusive terms. In their opinions he con- 
ceived the Duke to be to a certain degree implicated, and 
this produced some coldness in his manner towards him. 
Shortly after Arbuthnot came to him, complained first 
and explained after, and said the Duke would call upon him. 
The Duke did call, and in a conversation of two hours Can- 
ning told him all that had passed between himself and the 
Xing, thereby putting the Duke, as he supposed, in complete 
possession of his sentiments as to the reconstruction of the 
Government. A few days after Mr. Canning was charged by 
the King to lay before him the plan of an Administration, 
and upon this he wrote the letter to his former colleagues 
which produced so much discussion. I read the letters to the 
Duke, Bathurst, Melville, and Bexley, and I must say that 
the one to the Duke was rather the stiffest of the whole, 1 
though it was not so cold as the Duke chose to consider it. 
Then came his letter to the Duke on his speech, and the 
Duke's answer. When I read these last year I thought the 
Duke had much the best of it ; but I must alter this opinion 
if it be true that he knew Mr. Canning's opinions, as it is 
stated that he did entirely, after their long interview, at 
which the conversation with the King was communicated to 
him. That materially alters the case. There was a letter 
from Peel declining, entirely on the ground of objecting to a 
pro-Catholic Premier, and on the impossibility of his admin- 
istering Ireland with the First Lord of the Treasury of a 
different opinion on that subject from his own. There was 

1 [This correspondence is now published in the third volume of the 
Duke's ' Correspondence,' New Series, p. 028.] 



104 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

likewise a curious correspondence relative to a paper written 
by the Duke of York during his last illness, and not very long- 
before his death, to Lord Liverpool on the dangers of the 
country from the progress of the Catholic question, the object 
of which (though it was vaguely expressed) was to turn out 
the Catholic members and form a Protestant Government for 
the purpose of crushing the Catholic interest. This Lord 
Liverpool communicated (privately) to Canning, and it was 
afterwards communicated to the King, who appears (the 
answer was not there) to have given the Duke of York a rap 
on the knuckles, for there is a reply of the Duke's to the 
King, full of devotion, zeal, and affection to his person, and 
disclaiming any intention of breaking up the Government, 
an idea which could have arisen only from misconception of 
the meaning of his letter by Lord Liverpool. It is very 
clear, however, that he did mean that, for his letter could 
have meant nothing else. The whole thing is curious, for he 
was aware that he was dying, and he says so. 

January 12th. — Passed two days at Panshanger, but my 
room was so cold that I could not sit in it to write. Nobody 
there but P. Lamb and J. Russell. Lady Cowper told me 
what had passed relative to the negotiation with Melbourne 
last year, and which the Duke or his friends denied. The 
person who was employed (and whom she did not name) told 
P. Lamb that the Duke would take in Melbourne and two 
others (I am not sure it was not three), but not Huskisson. 
He said that it would be fairer at once to say that those 
terms would not be accepted, and to save him therefore from 
offering them, that Melbourne would not be satisfied with any 
Government which did not include Huskisson and Lord Grey, 
and that upon this answer the matter dropped. I don't 
think the Duke can be blamed for answering to anybody who 
chose to ask him any questions on the subject that he had 
made no offer ; it was the truth, though not the whole truth, 
and a Minister must have some shelter against impertinent 
questioners, or he would be at their mercy. An Envoy is 
come here from the Poles, 1 who brought a letter from Prince 

1 [This Envoy was Count Alexander Walewski, a natural son of the 
Emperor Napoleon, who afterwards played a considerable part in the affairs 



1831] CEOKER'S BOSTVELL. 105 

Czartoryski to Lord Grey, who lias not seen kiin, and whose 
arrival has naturally given umbrage to the Lievens. 

January 19th. — To Roehanipton on Saturday till Monday, 
having been at the Grove on Friday. George Yilliers at the 
Grove showed me a Dublin paper with an attack on Stanley's 
proclamation, and also a character of Plunket drawn with 
great severity and by a masterly hand ; it is supposed to 
be by Baron Smith, a judge who is very able, but fanciful 
and disaffected. He will never suffer any but policemen 
or soldiers to be hanged of those whom he tries. George 
Yilliers came from Hatfield, where he had a conversation 
with the Duke of Wellington, who told him that he had com- 
mitted a great error in his Administration in not paying 
more attention to the press, and in not securing a portion of it 
on his side and getting good writers into his employment, that 
he had never thought it necessary to do so, and that he was 
now convinced what a great mistake it was. At Eoehampton 
nothing new, except that the Reform plan is supposed to be 
settled, or nearly so. Duncannon has been consulted, and he 
and one or two more have had meetings with Durham, who 
were to lay their joint plans before Lord Grey first, and he 
afterwards brought them to the Cabinet. 

Ellis told me (a curious thing enough) that Croker (for 
his ' BoswelFs Life of Johnson ') had collected various anec- 
dotes from other books, but that the only new and original 
ones were those he had got from Lord Stowell, who was a 
friend of Johnson, and that he had written them under 
StowelTs dictation. Sir Walter Scott wanted to see them, 
and Croker sent them to him in Scotland by the post. The 
bag was lost ; no tidings could be heard of it, Croker had 
no copy, and Stowell is in his dotage and can't be got to 
dictate again. So much for the anecdote ; then comes the 
story. I said how surprising this was, for nothing was so 
rare as a miscarriage by the post. He said, ' Not at all, for I 

of France and of Europe, especially under the Second Empire. During his 
residence in London in 1831 he married Lady Caroline Montagu, a daughter 
of the Earl of Sandwich, but she did not live long. I remember calling 
upon him in St. James's Place, and seeing cards of invitation for Lady Grey's 
assemblies stuck in his glass. The fact is he was wonderfully handsome and 
agreeable, and soon became popular in London society.] 



106 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

inyself lost two reviews in the same way. I sent them both 
to Brougham to forward to Jeffrey (for the " Edinburgh "), 
and they were both lost in the same way ! ' That villain 
Brougham ! 

G. Lamb said that the King is supposed to be in a 
bad state of health, and this was confirmed to me by Keate 
the surgeon, who gave me to understand that he was going 
the way of both his brothers. He will be a great loss in 
these times ; he knows his business, lets his Ministers do as 
they please, but expects to be informed of everything. He 
lives a strange life at Brighton, with tagrag and bobtail 
about him, and always open house. The Queen is a prude, 
and will not let the ladies come decolletees to her parties. 
George IV., who liked ample expanses of that sort, would not 
let them be covered. In the meantime matters don't seem 
more promising either here or abroad. In Ireland there is 
open war between Anglesey and O'Connell, to whom it is 
glory enough (of his sort) to be on a kind of par with the 
Yiceroy, aud to have a power equal to that of the Govern- 
ment. Anglesey issues proclamation after proclamation, the 
other speeches and letters in retort. His breakfasts and 
dinners are put down, but he finds other places to harangue 
at, and letters he can always publish ; but he does not appear 
in quite so triumphant an attitude as he did. The O'Connell 
tribute is said to have failed ; no men of property or respecta- 
bility join him, and he is after all only the leader of a mob ; 
but it is a better sort of mob, and formidable from their 
numbers, and the organisation which has latterly become an 
integral part of mob tactics. Nothing can be more awful 
than the state of that country, and everybody expects that 
it will be found necessary to strengthen the hands of the 
Government with extraordinary powers to put an end to the 
prevailing anarchy. Q'Connell is a coward, and that is the 
best chance of his being beaten at last. 

Lord Lyndhurst took his seat as Chief Baron yesterday 
morning, Alexander retiring without an equivalent, and 
only having waited for quarter day. Brougham has had a 
violent squabble in his Court with Sugden, who having 



1831] O'CONNELL AKKESTED. 107 

bullied the Vice- Chancellor and governed Lyndhurst, has a 
mind to do the same by Brougham ; besides, he hates him 
for the repeated thrashings he got from him in the House of 
Commons, and has been heard to say that he will take his 
revenge in the Court of Chancery. The present affair was 
merely that Brougham began writing, when Sugden stopped 
and told him c it was no use his going on if his Lordship 
would not attend to the argument,' and so forth. 

I met Lyndhurst at dinner yesterday, who talks of him- 
self as standing on neutral ground, disconnected with 
politics. It is certainly understood that he is not to fight 
the battles of the present Government, but of course he is 
not to be against them. His example is a lesson to states- 
men to be frugal, for if he had been rich he would have had 
a better game before him. He told a curious anecdote about 
a trial. There was a (civil) cause in which the jury would 
not agree on their verdict. They retired on the evening of 
one day, and remained till one o'clock the next afternoon, 
when, being still disagreed, a juror was drawn. There was 
only one juror who held out against the rest — Mr. Berkeley 
(member for Bristol). The case was tried over again, and the 
jury were unanimously of Mr. Berkeley's opinion, which was 
in fact right, a piece of conscientious obstinacy which pre- 
vented the legal commission of wrong. 

Roehampton, January 22nd. — The event of the week is 
O'ConnelPs arrest on a charge of conspiracy to defeat the 
Lord-Lieutenant's proclamation. Lord Anglesey writes to 
Lady Anglesey thus : — 'I am just come from a consultation 
of six hours with the law officers, the result of which is a 
determination to arrest O'Connell, for things are now come 
to that pass that the question is whether he or I shall 
govern Ireland.' We await the result with great anxiety, 
for the opinion of lawyers seems divided as to the legality of 
the arrest, and laymen can form none. 

January 23rd. — No news ; Master of the Eolls, George 
Ponsonby, and George Villiers here. The latter told a 
story of Plunket, of his wit. Lord Wellesley's aide-de- 
camp Keppel wrote a book of his travels, and called it his 



108 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

personal narrative. Lord Wellesley was quizzing it, and 
said, ' Personal narrative ? what is a personal narrative ? Lord 
Plunket, what should you say a personal narrative meant?' 
Plunket answered, c My Lord, you know we lawyers always 
understand personal as contradistinguished from reaV And 
one or two others of Parsons, the Irish barrister. Lord 
Norbury on some circuit was on the bench speaking, and an 
ass outside brayed so loud that nobody could hear. He ex- 
claimed, ( Do stop that noise ! ' Parsons said, ' My Lord, 
there is a great echo here.' Somebody said to him one day, 
6 Mr. Parsons, have you heard of my son's robbery ? ' c No ; 
whom has he robbed ? ' 

Nothing but talk about O'Connell and his trial, and we 
have more fears he will be acquitted than hopes that he will 
be convicted. They still burn in the country, and I heard 
the other day that the manufacturing districts, though quiet, 
are in a high state of organisation. 

January 25th. — Met Colonel Napier 1 last night, and talked 
for an hour of the state of the country. He gave me a 
curious account of the organisation of the manufacturers in 
and about Manchester, who are divided into four different 
classes, with different objects, partly political, generally to 
better themselves, but with a regular Government, the seat 
of which is in the Isle of Man. He says that the agri- 
culturists are likewise organised in Wiltshire, and that 
there is a sort of free-masonry among them ; he thinks a 
revolution inevitable ; and when I told him what Southey 
had said — that if he had money enough he would transport 
his family to America — he said he would not himself leave 
England in times of danger, but that he should like to re- 
move his family if he could. 

The King is ill. I hope he won't die ; if he does, and 
the little girl, we shall have Cumberland, and (though 
Lyndhurst said he would make a very good King the other 
night) that would be a good moment for dispensing with the 
regal office. It is reported that they differ in the Cabinet 

1 [Sir William Napier, author of the * History of the Peninsular War.'] 



1831] O'COXNELL'S CASE. 109 

about Reform ; probably not true. What a state of terror 
and confusion we are in, though it seems to make no 
difference. 

January 31st. — At Roehampton on Saturday; Lord 
Robert Spencer and Sir G. Robinson. Agar Ellis had just 
resigned the Woods, after asking to be made a Peer, which 
they refused. All last week nobody thought of anything but 
O'Connell, and great was the joy at the charge of Judge Jebb, 
the unanimous opinion of the King's Bench, and the finding 
of the Grand Jury. Whatever happens, Government are now 
justified in the course they have taken ; and now he has tra- 
versed, which looks like weakness, and it is the general 
opinion that he is beaten ; but he is so astute, and so full of 
resources, that I would never answer for his being beaten till 
I see him in prison or find his popularity gone. The sub- 
scription produced between 7,000L and 8,000Z. It is an 
extraordinary thing, and the most wonderful effect I ever 
heard of the power of moral causes over the human body, 
that Lord Anglesey, who has scarcely been out of pain at all 
for years during any considerable intervals, has been quite 
free from his complaint (the tic douloureux) since he has 
been in Ireland; the excitement of these events, and the 
influence of that excitement on his nervous system, have 
produced this effect. There is a puzzler for philosophy, 
and such an amalgamation of moral and physical accidents 
as is well worth unravelling for those who- are wise enough. 

Yesterday there was a dinner at Lord Lansdowne's to 
name the Sheriffs, and there was I in attendance on my old 
school-fellows and associates Richmond, Durham, Graham, 
all great men now ! 

While some do laugh, and some do weep, 
Thus runs the world away. 

Lord Grey was not there, for he was gone to Brighton 
to lay the Reform Bill before the King. What a man 
Brougham is ; he wants to ride his Chancery steed to the 
Devil, as if he had not enough to do. Nothing would satisfy 



110 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

him but to come and hear causes in our Court ; T but as I knew 
it was only to provoke Leach, I would not let him come, and 
told the Lord President we had no causes for him to hear. 
He insisted, so did I, and he did not come ; but some day 
I will invite him, and then he will have forgotten it or have 
something else to do, and he won't come. He is a Jupiter- 
Scapin if ever there was one. 

February 6th. — Parliament met again on the 3rd, and 
the House of Commons exhibited a great array on the 
Opposition benches ; nothing was done the first day but the 
announcement of the Reform measure for the 2nd of March, 
to be brought in by Lord John Eussell in the House of Com- 
mons, though not a Cabinet Minister. The fact is that if 
a Cabinet Minister had introduced it, it must have been 
Althorp, and he is wholly unequal to it ; he cannot speak 
at all, so that though the pretence is to pay a compliment to 
John Russell because he had on former occasions brought 
forward plans of Reform, it is really expedient to take the 
burden off the leader of the Government. The next night 
came on the Civil List, and as the last Government was turned 
out on this question, there had existed a general but vague ex- 
pectation that some wonderful reductions were to be proposed 
by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. Great, then, was 
the exultation of the Opposition when it was found that no 
reductions would be made, and that the measure of this 
Government only differed from that of the last in the 
separation of the King's personal expenses from the other 
charges and a prospective reduction in the Pension List. 
There was not much of a debate. Althorp did it ill by all 
accounts ; Graham spoke pretty well ; and Calcraft, who 
could do nothing while in office, found all his energies 
when he got back to the Opposition benches, and made 
(everybody says) a capital speech. There is certainly a 
great disappointment that the Civil List does not produce 
some economical novelty, and to a certain degree the popu- 

1 [At the Privy Council, where the Master of the Rolls was at that time 
in the habit of sitting with two lay Privy Councillors to hear Plantation 
Appeals.] 



1831] THE CIVIL LIST. Ill 

larity of the Government will be affected by it. But they 
have taken the manliest course, and the truth is the Duke 
of Wellington had already made all possible reductions, 
unless the King and the Government were at once to hang 
out the flag of poverty and change their whole system, 
After what Sefton had told me of the intentions of Govern- 
ment about the Pension List, and my reply to him, it was 
a satisfaction to me to find they could not act on such 
a principle ; and accordingly Lord Althorp at once de- 
clared the opinion and intentions of Government about 
the Pensions, instead of abandoning them to the rage of 
the House of Commons. There is not even a surmise as 
to the intended measure of Reform, the secret of which is 
well kept, but I suspect the confidence of the Reformers will 
be shaken by their disappointment about the Civil List. 
It is by no means clear, be it what it may, that the 
Government will be able to carry it, for the Opposition 
promises to be very formidable in point of numbers ; and in 
speaking the two parties are, as to the first class, pretty 
evenly divided — Palmerston, the Grants, Graham, Stanley, 
John Russell, on one side ; Peel, Calcraft, Hardinge, Dawson, 
on the other ; fewer in numbers, but Peel immeasurably 
the best on either side — but in the second line, and among 
the younger ones, the Opposition are far inferior. 

February 9th. — Just got into my new home — Poulett 
Thomson's house, which I have taken for a year. The day 
before yesterday came the news that the French had refused 
the nomination of the Due de Nemours to the throne of 
Belgium, the news of his being chosen having come on 
Sunday. The Ministers were rayonnants ; Lord Lansdowne 
came to his office and told it me with prodigious glee. 

Met with Sir J. Burke on Sunday at Brooks's, who said 
that O'Connell was completely beaten by the address of the 
merchants and bankers, among whom were men — Mahon, for 
instance (O'Gorman Mahon's uncle) — who had always stood 
by him. I do not believe he is completely beaten, and his 
resources for mischief are so great that he will rally again 
before long, I have little doubt. However, what has occurred 



112 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

lias been productive of great good ; it lias elicited a strong 
Conservative demonstration, and proved that out of the rabble- 
ocracy (for everything is in ocracy now) his power is anything 
but unlimited. There are 20,000 men in Ireland, so Lord 
Hill told me last night. Hunt l spoke for two hours last 
night ; his manner and appearance very good, like a country 
gentleman of the old school, a sort of rural dignity about it, 
very civil, good-humoured, and respectful to the House, but 
dull ; listened to, however, and very well received. 

February 12th. — The debate three nights ago on Ireland, 
brought on by O'Gorman Mahon, is said to have been the 
best that has been heard in the House of Commons for many 
years. Palmerston, Burdett, AJthorp, Peel, Wyse, all made 
good speeches ; it was spirited, statesmanlike, and creditable 
to the House, which wanted some such exhibition to raise its 
credit. I saw the day before yesterday a curious letter from 
Southey to Brougham, which some day or other will probably 
appear. Taylor showed it me. Brougham had written to 
him to ask him what his opinion was as to the encourage- 
ment that could be given to literature, by rewarding or 
honouring literary men, and suggested (I did not see his 
letter) that the Guelphic Order should be bestowed upon 
them. Southey's reply was very courteous, but in a style of 
suppressed irony and forced politeness, and exhibited the 
marks of a chafed spirit, which was kept down by an effort. 
c You, my Lord, are noiv on the Conservative side,' was one 
of his phrases, which implied that the Chancellor had not 
always been on that side. He suggested that it might be 
useful to establish a sort of lay fellowships ; 1 0,000 1, would 
give 10 of 500Z. and 25 of 200?. ; but he proposed them not to 
reward the meritorious, but as a means of silencing or hiring 
the mischievous. It was evident, however, that he laid no 
stress on this plan, or considered it practicable, and only pro- 
posed it because he thought he must suggest something. 
He said that honours might be desirable to scientific men, as 
they were so considered on the Continent, and Newton and 

1 [Henry Hunt, a well-known Radical, had just been returned for 
Preston, where he had beaten Mr. Stanley.] 



1831] THE FIRST WHIG BUDGET. 113 

Davy had been titled, but for himself, if a Guelphic distinction 
was adopted, 'he should be a Ghibelline' He ended by 
saying that all he asked for was a repeal of the Copyright 
Act, which took from the families of literary men the only 
property they had to give them, and this c I ask for with the 
earnestness of one who is conscious that he has laboured for 
posterity. 3 It is a remarkable letter. 

February 13th. — The Budget, which was brought forward 
two nights ago, has given great dissatisfaction; Goulburn 
attacked the taxation of the funds (half per cent, on trans- 
fer of stock and land) in the best speech he ever made, 
Peel in another good speech. The bankers assailed it one 
after another, and not a man on the Government side 
spoke decently. Great of course was the exultation of the 
Opposition, and it is supposed that this will be withdrawn 
and a Property Tax laid on instead. There is a meeting to- 
day in Downing Street, at which I suspect it will be an- 
nounced. The Budget must appear hurried, and nothing 
but the circumstances in which they are placed could have 
justified their bringing it on so soon. In two months, 
besides having foreign affairs of the greatest consequence on 
their hands, they have concocted a Reform Bill and settled 
the finances of the nation for the next year, which is quite 
ludicrous ; but they are obliged to have money voted imme- 
diately, that in case they should be beaten on Reform or any 
other vital question which may compel them to dissolve 
Parliament, they may have passed their estimates and 
be provided with funds. Their secrets are well kept — ■ 
rather too well, for nobod} r knew of this Budget, and not a 
soul has a guess what their Reform is to be. At present 
nothing can cut a poorer figure than the Government does in 
the House of Commons, and they have shown how weak a 
Government a strong Opposition may make. 

I have just been to hear Benson preach at the Temple, 
but I was so distant that I heard ill. His manner is im- 
pressive, and language good without being ambitious, but I 
was rather disappointed. Brougham was there, with Lord 
King of all people ! 

VOL. II. i 



114 KEIGN OF WILLI AJVI IV. [Chap. XIII. 

February Ihth. — Yesterday morning news came that 
O'Connell had withdrawn his plea of not guilty and (by his 
counsel, Mr. Perrin) pleaded guilty, to the unutterable as- 
tonishment of everybody, and not less delight. Sheil wrote 
word that his heart sank at the terror of a gaol, and 6 how 
would such a man face a battle, who could not encounter 
Newgate ? ' Everybody's impression was that it was a 
compromise with the law officers, and that he pleaded guilty 
on condition that he should not be brought up for judgment, 
but it was no such thing ; he made in the preceding days seve- 
ral indirect overtures to Lord Anglesey, who would listen to 
nothing, and told him that after his conduct he could do 
nothing for him, and that he must take his own course. 
He comes to England directly, and will be brought up for 
judgment (if at all, which I doubt) next term. He gives out 
that he was forced to do this in order to hasten to England 
and repair in the House of Commons the errors of O'Gorman 
Mahon. There is no calculating what may be the extent of 
the credulity of an Irish mob with regard to him, but after 
all his bullies and bravadoes this will hardly go down even 
with them. Sheil says c O'Connell is fallen indeed.' I trust, 
though hardly dare hope, that ' he sinks like stars that fall 
to rise no more.' It is impossible to form an idea of the as- 
tonishment of everybody at this termination of the law pro- 
ceedings, which have ended so triumphantly for Lord An- 
glesey and Plunket. Lord Anglesey, however, wrote word 
to JjSbdy Anglesey that no one could form an idea of the state 
of that country : that fresh plots were discovered every day, 
that from circumstances he had been able to do more than 
another man would, but that it was not, he firmly believed, 
possible to save it. 

There was a meeting at A] thorp's on Sunday, when he 
agreed to withdraw the Transfer Tax, and that there should 
he no Property Tax. A more miserable figure was never cut 
than his ; but how should it be otherwise ? A respectable 
country gentleman, well versed in rural administration, in 
farming and sporting, with all the integrity of 15,000?. a 
year in possession and 50,OOOL in reversion, is all of a sudden 



1831] LOED ALTHOEFS BUDGET. 115 

made leader in the House of Commons without being able 
to speak, and Chancellor of the Exchequer without any know- 
ledge, theoretical or practical, of finance. By way of being 
discreet, and that his plan may be a secret, he consults no- 
body ; and then he closets himself with his familiar Poulett 
Thomson, who puts this notable scheme into his head, and out 
he blurts it in the House of Commons, without an idea how 
it will be received, without making either preparations for 
defending it or for an alternative in case of its rejection. If 
Al thorp and Poulett Thomson are to govern England, these 
things are likely to happen. The Opposition cannot contain 
themselves ; the women think they are to come in directly. 
Goulburn said to Baring as they left the House on Friday, 
6 Mr. Baring, you' said last year you thought my Budget was 
the most profligate that any Chancellor of the Exchequer had 
ever brought forward ; I think you will now no longer say it 
was the most profligate.' Last night Praed l made his first 
speech, which was very good. 

February 17th. — The day before yesterday Duncannon 
called on me, and told me O'Connell had got up an oppo- 
sition to him in Kilkenny ; that he was of opinion that the 
recent events would diminish neither his power nor his popu- 
larity, and that in fact he was infallible with the Irish mob. 
As Richard says, ' if this have no effect, he is immortal. 5 

The Duke of Wellington called on my family yesterday ; 
he says the Reform question will not be carried, and he 
thinks the Government cannot stand, that things are certainly 
better (internally), and that the great fear is lest people 
should be too much afraid. 

Went to Lady Dudley Stewart's last night ; a party ; saw 
a vulgar-looking, fat man with spectacles, and a mincing, 
rather pretty pink and white woman, his wife. The man was 
Xapoleon's nephew, the woman Washington's granddaughter. 
What a host of associations, all confused and degraded ! He 

1 [Winthrop Mackworth Praed, a young man of great promise, who had 
just entered Parliament. He took his degree in 1825, and -was regarded by 
the Tories as the rival and competitor of Thomas Babington Macaiilay. 
But unhappily he died in 1839.] 

i 2 



116 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

is a son of Murat, the King of Naples, who was said to be 
c le dieu Mars jusqu'a six heures du soir.' He was heir to a 
throne, and is now a ]aw} r er in the United States, and his 
wife, whose name I know not, Sandon told ine, was Wash- 
ington's granddaughter. (This must be a mistake, for I 
think Washington never had any children.) 1 

February 24th. — At Newmarket for three days, from 
Saturday till Tuesday ; riding out at eight o'clock every 
morning and inhaling salubrious air. Came back the night 
before last and found matters in a strange state. The 
Government, strong in the House of Lords (which is a 
secondaiw consideration), is weak in the House of Com- 
mons to a degree which is contemptible and ridiculous. 
Even Sefton now confesses that Althorp is' wretched. There 
he is leading the House of Commons without the slightest 
acquaintance with the various subjects that come under dis- 
cussion, and hardly able to speak at all; not one of the 
Ministers exhibits anything like vigour, ability, or discretion. 
As Althorp cannot speak, Graham is obliged to talk, or 
thinks he is, and, as I predicted, he is failing ; 2 with some 
cleverness and plenty of fluency, he is unequal to the situa- 
tion he is placed in, and his difference with Grant the other 
night and his apology to O'Gorman Mahon have been preju- 
dicial to the Government and to his own character. The 
exultation of the Opposition ig unbounded, and Peel plays 
with his power in the House, only not putting it forth be- 
cause it does not suit his convenience ; but he does what he 
likes, and it is evident that the very existence of the Govern- 
ment depends upon his pleasure. His game, however, is to 
display candour and moderation, and rather to protect them 
than not, so he defends many of their measures and restrains 
the fierce animosity of his friends, but with a sort of sarcastic 
civility, which, while it is put forth in their defence, is 

1 [Achille Murat and his wife were living at this time in the Alpha 
Road, Regent's Park. It was said she was Washington's grand-niece, but 
I am not sure what the relationship was, if any. She was certainly not kis 
granddaughter.] 

2 It was on Lord Chandos's motion to take into consideration the state 
of the "West Indies. 



1831] WEAKNESS OP THE GOVERNMENT. 117 

always done in such a manner as shall best exhibit his own 
authority and his contempt for their persons individually. 
While he upholds the Government he does all he can to 
bring each member of it into contempt, and there they are, 
helpless and confused, writhing under his lash and their own 
impotence, and only intent upon staving off a division which 
would show the world how feeble they are. Neither the 
late nor any other Government ever cut so poor a figure as 
this does. Palmerston does nothing, Grant does worse, 
Graham does no good, Althorp a great deal of harm ; Stanley 
alone has distinguished himself, and what he has had to do 
has done very well. It is not, however, only in the House 
of Commons that the Government are in such discredit ; the 
Budget did their business in the City, and alienated the trad- 
ing interest. It is a curious circumstance that both Goul- 
burn and Herries have been beset by deputations and indi- 
vidual applications for advice and assistance nearly as much 
since they left office as when they were in it by merchants 
and others, who complain to them that it was quite use- 
less to go to Lord Althorp, for they find that he has not 
the slightest acquaintance with any of the subjects and 
interests on which they addressed themselves to him, and 
one man told Herries this, at the same time owning that he 
was a Whig in principle, and had been an opponent of the 
late and a supporter of the present Government. The press 
generally are falling off from the Government, which is an 
ominous sign. While the Government is thus weak and 
powerless the elements of confusion and violence are gather- 
ing fresh force, and without any fixed and loyal authority to 
check them will pursue their eccentric course till some public 
commotion arrives, cr till the Conservative resources of the 
country are called into action and the antagonistic principles 
are fairly brought to trial. 

The King went to the play the night before last ; was well 
received in the house, but hooted and pelted coming home, 
and a stone shivered a window of his coach and fell into 
Prince George of Cumberland's lap. The King was ex- 
cessively annoyed, and sent for Baring, who was the officer 



118 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

riding by his coach, and asked him if he knew who had 
thrown the stone ; he said that it terrified the Queen, and 
* was very disagreeable, as he should always be going some- 
where.' 

In the House of Commons Committee on the Parliament 
Offices they are making the whole thing ridiculous by the 
sort of reductions they suggest. Hume proposed to cut 
down the President of the Council to 1,000L a year, on 
which Stormont moved he should have nothing, and this 
(which was intended to ridicule Hume's proposal) was car- 
ried, but will probably be rescinded. There is no directing 
power anywhere, and the sort of anarchy that is fast in- 
creasing must beget confusion. Nobody has the least idea 
how Reform will go, or of the nature of what they mean to 
propose, but the King said to Cecil Forrester yesterday, who 
went to resign his office of Groom of the Bedchamber, ' Why 
do you resign ? ' He said he could not support Government 
or vote for Reform. e Well, but you don't know what it is, 
and you might have waited till it came on, for it probably will 
not be carried ; ' and this he repeated twice. Lord Durham 
has volunteered to give up his salary as Privy Seal, which is 
no great sacrifice, considering how long he is likely to enjoy 
it, and everybody gives him credit for having suggested the 
relief to coals for his own interest. Lady Holland, who has 
got a West Indian estate, attacked him about the sugar 
duties, and asked him if they would not reduce them. He 
said ' No.' She retorted, ' That is because you have no West 
Indian estate ; you have got your own job about coals done, 
and you don't care about us.' In the House of Lords they 
have it all their own way. The other night, on Lord Strang- 
ford's motion about the Methuen treaty, Brougham exhibited 
his wonderful powers in his very best style. Without any 
preparation for the question, and after it had been exhausted 
in a very good speech of Goderich's, he got up, and in answer 
to Strangford and Ellenborough banged their heads together, 
and displayed all his power of ridicule, sarcasm, and argu- 
ment in a manner which they could not themselves help 
admiring. The next night he brought forward his Chancery 



1831] LADY JEESEY AND LORD DURHAM. 119 

Reform measure in a speech of three hours, which, however 
luminous, was too long for their Lordships, and before the 
end of it the House had melted away to nothing. But, not- 
withstanding this success, he must inwardly chafe at being 
removed from his natural element and proper sphere of 
action, and he must burn with vexation at seeing Peel riot 
and revel in his unopposed power, like Hector when Achilles 
would not fight, though this Achilles can never fight again 
but he would give a great deal to go back to the field, and 
would require much less persuasion than Achilles did. 

February 25th. — A drawing-room yesterday, at which the 
Princess Victoria made her first appearance. I was not 
there. Lady Jersey made a scene with Lord Durham. She 
got up and crossed the room to him and said, ' Lord Durham, 
I hear that you have said things about me which are not 
true, and I desire that you will call upon me to-morrow with 
a witness to hear my positive denial, and I beg that you will 
not repeat any such things about me,' or, as the Irishman 
said, ' words to that effect.' She was in a fury, and he, I 
suppose, in a still greater. He muttered that he should 
never set foot in her house again, which she did not hear, as 
after delivering herself of her speech she flounced back again 
to her seat, mighty proud of the exploit. It arose out of his 
saying that he should make Lady Durham demand an 
audience of the Queen to contradict the things Lady Jersey 
had said of her and the other Whig ladies. 

I saw Lady Jersey last night and had a long con- 
versation with her about her squabbles. She declares 
solemnly (and I believe it) that she never said a syllable to 
the Queen against her quondam friends, owns she abused 
Sefton to other people, cried, and talked, and the end was 
that I am to try to put an end to these tracasseries. She 
was mighty glorious about her sortie upon Lambton, whom 
she dislikes, but she is vexed at the hornets' nest she has 
brought round her head. All this comes of talking. The 
wisest man mentioned in history was the vagrant in the 
Tuileries Gardens some years ago, who walked about with 
a gag on, and when taken up by the police and questioned 



120 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIII. 

why he went about in that guise, he said he was imprudent, 
and that he might not say anything to get himself into 
jeopardy he had adopted this precaution. I wonder what 
Lambton would say now about appointing others instead 
of Palmerston and Co. if they should go out, which he talked 
of as such an easy and indifferent matter. What arrogance 
and folly there is in the world ! I don't know how long this 
will last, but it must end in Peel's being Prime Minister. 
What a foolish proverb that is that 'honesty is the best 
policy ! ' 

I am just come home from breakfasting with Henry Taylor 
to meet Wordsworth ; the same party as when he had Southey 
— Mill, Elliot, Charles Yilliers. Wordsworth may be bor- 
dering on sixty ; hard-featured, brown, wrinkled, with pro- 
minent teeth and a few scattered grey hairs, but nevertheless 
not a disagreeable countenance ; and very cheerful, merry, 
courteous, and talkative, much more so than I should have 
expected from the grave and didactic character of his writings. 
He held forth on poetry, painting, politics, and metaphysics, 
and with a great deal of eloquence ; he is more conversible 
and with a greater flow of animal spirits than Southey. He 
mentioned that he never wrote down as he composed, but 
composed walking, riding, or in bed, and wrote down after; 
that Southey always composes at his desk. He talked a 
great deal of Brougham, whose talents and domestic virtues 
he greatly admires ; that he was very generous and affec- 
tionate in his disposition, full of duty and attention to his 
mother, and had adopted and provided for a whole family of 
his brother's children, and treats his wife's children as if they 
were his own. He insisted upon taking them both with him 
to the drawing-room the other day when he went in state 
as Chancellor. They remonstrated with him, but in vain. 



121 



CHAPTER XIY. 

Introduction of the Reform Bill — Attitude of the Opposition — Reform De- 
bates — Peel — Wilberforce and Canning — Old Sir Robert Peel — The City 
Address — Agitation for Reform — Effects of the Reform Bill — Brougham 
as Chancellor — Brougham at the Horse Guards — Miss Kemble — Vote on 
the Timber Duties — Lord Lansdowne's Opinion of the Bill — Reform 
Bill carried by one Vote — The King in Mourning — The Prince of 
Orange — Peel's Reserve — Ministers beaten — Parliament dissolved by 
the King in Person — Tumult in both Houses — Failure of the Whig 
Ministry — The King in their Hands — The Elections — Illumination in 
the City — The Queen alarmed — Lord Lyndhurst's View of the Bill — 
Lord Grey takes the Garter — The King at Ascot — Windsor under 
William IV. — Brougham at Whitbread's Brewery and at the British 
Museum — Breakfast at Rogers' — The Cholera — Quarantine — Meeting of 
Peers — Xew Parliament meets — Opened by the King — l Hernani ' at 
Bridgewater House — The Second Reform Bill — The King's Coronation 
— Cobbett's Trial — Prince Leopold accepts the Crown of Belgium — 
Peel and the Tories — A Rabble Opposition — A Council for the Coro- 
nation. 

March 2nd. — The great day at length, arrived, and yester- 
day Lord John Russell moved for leave to bring in his Reform 
Bill. To describe the curiosity, the intensity of the expect- 
ation and excitement, would be impossible, and the secret 
had been so well kept that not a soul knew what the 
measure was (though most people guessed pretty well) till 
they heard it. He rose at six o'clock, and spoke for two 
hours and a quarter — a sweeping measure indeed, much 
more so than anyone had imagined, because the Ministers 
had said it was one which would give general satisfaction, 
whereas this must dissatisfy all the moderate and will 
probably just stop short enough not to satisfy the Radicals. 
They say it was ludicrous to see the faces of the members 
for those places which are to be disfranchised as they were 



122 KEIGKN" OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

severally announced, and Wetherell, who began to take 
notes, as the plan was gradually developed, after sundry 
contortions and grimaces and flinging about his arms and 
legs, threw down his notes with a mixture of despair and 
ridicule and horror. Not many people spoke last night : 
Inglis followed John Russell, and Francis Leveson closed the 
debate in the best speech he has ever made, though rather 
too flowery. Everything is easy in these days, otherwise 
how Palmerston, Goderich, and Grant can have joined in a 
measure of this sweeping, violent, and speculative character 
it is diflicult to conceive, they who were the disciples of 
Castlereagh and the adherents of Canning; but after the 
Duke of Wellington and Peel carrying the Catholic question, 
Canning's friends advocating Radical Reform, and Eldon 
living to see Brougham on the Woolsack, what may one not 
expect ? 

What everybody enquires is what line Peel will take, and 
though each party is confident of success in this question, it 
it thought to depend mainly upon the course he adopts and 
the sentiments he expresses. Hitherto he has cautiously 
abstained from committing himself in any way, and he is 
free to act as he thinks best, but he certainly occupies a 
grand position when he has omnium oculos in se conversos, 
and the whole House of Commons looking with unalterable 
anxiety to his opinions and conduct. Such has the course 
of events and circumstances made this man, who is pro- 
bably yet destined to play a great part, and it may be a very 
useful one. God knows how this plan may be received in 
the country, and what may be its fate in Parliament. The 
Duke of Wellington, however, is right enough when he says 
that the great present danger is lest people should be too 
much afraid, for anything like the panic that prevails I 
never saw, the apprehension that enough will not be done 
to satiate the demon of popular opinion, and the disposition 
to submit implicitly to the universal bellow that pervades 
this country for what they call Reform without knowing 
what it is. As to this measure, the greatest evil of it is that 
it is a pure speculation, and may be productive of the best 



1831] THE FIKST EEFOEM BILL. 123 

consequences, or the worst, or even of none at all, for all that 
its authors and abettors can explain to us or to themselves. 

O'Connell made his explanation the other night, which 
was wretched, and Stanley's was very good, but it matters 
not ; he will tell the people in Ireland that he had a victory, 
and they will believe him. Nevertheless his defeat in Kil- 
kenny is an excellent thing, and will contribute greatly to 
destroy the prestige of his power. 

March 3rd. — Last night the debate went on, nobody 
remarkably speaking but Macaulay and Wetherell; the 
former very brilliant, the latter long, rambling, and amusing, 
and he sat down with such loud and long cheering as every- 
body agreed they had never heard before in the House of 
Commons, and which was taken not so much as a test of the 
merits of the speech as of an indication of the disposition 
of the majority of tbe House. Wetherell was very good 
fun in a conversation he imagined at Cockermouth between 
Sir James Graham and one of his constituents. It is 
thought very strange that none of the Ministers have spoken, 
except Althorp the first night. The general opinion is 
that the Bill will be lost in the House of Commons, and that 
then Parliament will be dissolved, unless the King should 
take fright and prefer to change his Ministers. 

March 5th. — On Thursday night the great speeches were 
those of Hobhouse on one side and Peel on the other, which 
last was received with the greatest enthusiasm, and some said 
(as usual) that it was the finest oration they had ever heard 
within the Avails of Parliament ; it seems by the report of it 
to have been very able and very eloquent. The people come 
into the 'Travellers ' after the debate, and bring their different 
accounts all tinctured by their particular opinions and pre- 
judices, so that the exact truth of the relative merits of 
the speakers is only attainable by the newspaper reports, 
imperfect as they are, the next day. The excitement is 
beyond anything I ever saw. Last night Stanley answered 
Peel in an excellent speech and one which is likely to raise 
his reputation very high. He is evidently desirous of pitting 
himself against Peel, whom he dislikes ; and it is probable 



124 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

that they are destined to be the rival leaders of two great 
Parliamentary parties, if things settle down into the ancient 
practices of Parliamentary warfare. The other events of 
last night were the resignation of Charles Wynne and his 
opposition to the Bill, and the unexpected defection from 
Government of Lord Seymour, the Duke of Somerset's son, 
and Jeffrey's speech, which was very able, but somewhat 
tedious. 

March 7th. — Nothing talked of, thought of, dreamt of, 
but Reform. Every creature one meets asks, What is said 
now ? How will it go ? What is the last news ? What do you 
think ? and so it is from morning till night, in the streets, in 
the clubs, and in private houses. Yesterday morning met 
Hobhouse ; told him how well I heard he had spoken, and 
asked him what he thought of Peel's speech ; he said it was 
brilliant, imposing, but not much in it. Everybody cries up 
(more than usual) the speeches on their own side, and despises 
those on the other, which is peculiarly absurd, because the 
speaking has been very good, and there is so much to be 
said on both sides that the speech of an adversary may be 
applauded without any admission of his being in the right. 
Hobhouse told me he had at first been afraid that his consti- 
tuents would disapprove this measure, as so many of them 
would be disfranchised, but that they had behaved nobly and 
were quite content and ready to make any sacrifices for such 
an object. I asked him if he thought it would be carried ; 
he said he did not like to think it would not, for he was 
desirous of keeping what he had ? and he was persuaded he 
should lose it if the Bill were rejected. I said it was an 
unlucky dilemma when one-half of the world thought like 
him and the other half were equally convinced that if it be 
carried they shall lose everything. 

Dined at Boodle's with the Master of the Rolls and 
Charles Grant, who talked about Peel and the reconstruc- 
tion of the Tory party ; that Peel and Wetherell do not yet 
speak, but that the parties have joined, and at the meeting 
at Wetherell's Herries went to represent Peel with sixteen 
or eighteen of his friends. Ross, another of Peel's clmes 



1831] THE FIRST SIR ROBERT PEEL. 125 

damnees, told ine the same thing and that they would soon 
come together ag-ain. Grant said he knew that the Duke of 
Wellington had expressed his readiness to take any part in 
which it was thought he could render service, either a 
prominent or a subordinate one or none at all. If so he 
will be a greater man than he has ever been yet. 

Grant talked long and pathetically about the West Indies, 
and told me a curious anecdote on the authority of Scarlett, 
who was present. When Wilberforce went out of Parlia- 
ment he went to Canning and offered him the lead and 
direction of his party (the Saints), urging him to accept it, 
and assuring him that their support would give him a 
strength which to an ambitious man like him was invalu- 
able. Canning took three days to consider it, but finally 
declined, and then the party elected Brougham as their 
chief; hence the representation of Yorkshire and many other 
incidents in Brougham's career. 

Grant gave me a curious account of old Sir Eobert Peel. 
He was the younger son of a merchant, his fortune (very 
small) left to him in the house, and he was not to take it out. 
He gave up the fortune and started in business without a 
shilling, but as the active partner in a concern with two 
other men — Yates (whose daughter he afterwards married) 
and another — who between them made up 6,0002. ; from 
this beginning he left 250,000 1, apiece to his five younger 
sons, 00,0002. to his three daughters each, and 22,0002. a year 
in land and 450,000Z. in the funds to Peel. In his lifetime he 
gave Peel 12,0002. a year, the others 3,000?., and spent 3,0002. 
himself. He was always giving them money, and for objects 
which it might have been thought he would have undervalued. 
He paid for Peel's house when he built it, and for the Cha- 
peau de Paille (2,700 guineas) when he bought it. 

March 10th. — The debate has gone on, and is to be over 
to-night ; everybody heartily sick of it, but the excitement as 
great as ever. Last night O'Connell was very good, and 
vehemently cheered by the Government, Stanley, Duncannon, 
and all, all differences giving way to their zeal ; Attwood, 
the other way, good ; Graham a total failure, got into 



126 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

nautical terms and a simile about a ship, in which he 
floundered and sank. Sir J. Yorke quizzed him with great 
effect. To-day the City went up with their address, to which 
the King gave a very general answer. There was great 
curiosity to know what his answer would be. I rather think 
this address was got up by Government. Brougham had 
written to Liverpool to encourage the Reformers there, as he 
owned to George Yilliers last night ; and Pearson was with 
Ellice at the Treasury for an hour the day before this 
address was moved in the City. They have gone so far 
that they certainly wish for agitation here. The Duke of 
Wellington is alarmed; nobody guesses how the question 
will go. Went to Lady Jersey the day before yesterday to 
read her correspondence with Brougham, who flummeried 
her over with notes full of affection and praise, to which she 
responded in the same strain, and so they are friends again. 
While I was reading her reply the Duke of Wellington came 
in, on which she huddled it up, and I conclude he has not 
seen her effusion. News arrived that the Poles have been 
beaten and have submitted. There is a great fall in the 
French funds, as they are expected not to pay their dividends. 
Europe is in a nice mess. The events of a quarter of a 
century would hardly be food for a week now-a-days. 

March 11th. — It is curious to see the change of opinion 
as to the passing of this Bill. The other day nobody would 
hear of the possibility of it, now everybody is beginning to 
think it will be carried. The tactics of the Opposition have 
been very bad, for they ought to have come to a division 
immediately, when I think Government would have been 
beaten, but it was pretty certain that if they gave time to 
the country to declare itself the meetings and addresses 
would fix the wavering and decide the doubtful. There 
certainly never was anything like the unanimity which per- 
vades the country on the subject, and though I do not think 
they will break out into rebellion if it is lost, it is impossible 
not to see that the feeling for it (kept alive as it will be by 
every sort of excitement) must prevail, and that if this 
particular Bill is not carried some other must very like it, 



1831] PROBABLE RESULTS OF THE REFORM BILL. 127 

and which ; if it is much short of this, will only leave a peg to 
hang fresh discussions upon. The Government is desperate 
and sees no chance of safety but from their success in the 
measure, but I have my doubts whether they will render 
themselves immortal by it. It is quite impossible to guess 
at its effects at present upon the House of Commons in 
the first return which may be made under it, but if a vast 
difference is not made, and if it shall still leave to property 
and personal influence any great extent of power, the Tory 
party, which is sure to be revived, will in all probability be 
too strong for the Reforming Whigs. The Duke of Wel- 
lington expected to gain strength by passing the Catholic 
question, whereas he was ruined by it. 

March 15th. — It is universally believed that this Bill will 
pass, except by some of the ultras against it, or by the fools. 
But what next ? That nobody can tell, though to see the 
exultation of the Government one would imagine they saw 
their way clearly to a result of wonderful good. I have little 
doubt that it will be read a second time, and be a good deal 
battled in Committee. Although they are determined to 
carr}^ it through the Committee with a high hand, and not to 
suffer any alterations, probably some sort of compromise in 
matters of inferior moment will be made. But when it 
comes into operation how disappointed everybody will be, 
and first of all the people ! Their imaginations are raised to 
the highest pitch, but they will open their eyes very wide 
when they find no sort of advantage accruing to them, when 
they are deprived of much of the expense and more of the 
excitement of elections, and see a House of Commons con- 
structed after their own hearts, which will probably be an 
assembly in all respects inferior to the present. Then they 
will not be satisfied, and as it will be impossible to go back, 
there will be plenty of agitators who will preach that we 
have not gone far enough; and if a Reformed Parliament 
does not do all that popular clamour shall demand, it will be 
treated with very little ceremony. If, however, it be true 
that the tendency of this Bill will be to throw power into the 
hands of the landed interest, we shall have a great Tory 



128 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

party, which will be selfish, bigoted,, and ignorant, and a 
Badical party, while the Whig party, who will have carried 
the measure, will sink into insignificance. Such present 
themselves to my mind as possible alternatives, as far as it is 
practicable to take anything like a view of probabilities in 
the chaos and confusion that mighty alterations like these 
produce. 

I dined with Lord Grey on Sunday ; they are all in high 
spirits. Howick told his father that he had received a letter 
from some merchant in the north praising the Bill, and 
saying he approved of the whole Government except of 
Poulett Thomson. In the evening Brougham, John Eussell, 
and others arrived. I hear of Brougham from Sefton, 
with whom he passes most of his spare time, to relieve his 
mind by small talk, persiflage, and the gossip of the day. 
He tells Sefton ' that he likes lib office, but that it is a mere 
plaything and there is nothing to do ; his life is too idle, and 
when he has cleared off the arrears, which he shall do forth- 
with, that he really does not know how he shall get rid of 
his time ; ' that ' he does not suffer the prolixity of counsel, 
and when they wander from the point he brings them back 
and says, " You need not say anything on that point ; what 
T want to be informed upon is so." He is a wonderful 
man, the most extraordinary I ever saw, but there is more 
of the mountebank than of greatness in all this. It may 
do well enough for Sefton, who is as ignorant as he is sharp 
and shrewd, aud captivated with his congenial offhand- 
ism, but it requires something more than Brougham's flip- 
pant ipse dixit to convince me that the office of Chancellor 
is such a sinecure and bagatelle. He had a levee the 
other night, which was brilliantly attended — the Arch- 
bishops, Duke of Wellington, Lord Grey, a host of people. 
Sefton goes and sits in his private room and sees his recep- 
tions of people, and gives very amusing accounts of his 
extreme politeness to the Lord Mayor and his cool insou- 
ciance with the Archbishop of Canterbury. The stories of 
him as told by Sefton would be invaluable to his future 
biographer, and never was a life more sure to be written 
hereafter. 



1831] BROUGHAM AT THE HORSE GUARDS. 129 

March 17th. — The night before last Wynford attacked 
Brougham's Bill, and got lashed in return with prodigious 
severity. He is resolved to press it, though George Villiers 
told me he had promised Lyndhurst to wait for his 
return to town. Notwithstanding his vapouring about the 
Court of Chancery, and treating it as such child's play, 
Leach affirms (but he is disappointed and hates him) that he 
is a very bad judge and knows nothing of his business. c He 
was a very bad advocate ; why should he make a good 
judge?' 

The Eeform Bill is just printed, and already are the 
various objections raised against different parts of it, suffi- 
cient to show that it will be pulled to pieces in Com- 
mittee. Both parties confident of success on the second 
reading, but the country will have it ; there is a determina- 
tion on the subject, and a unanimity perfectly marvellous, 
and no demonstration of the unfitness of any of its parts will 
be of any avail ; some of its details may be corrected and 
amended, but substantially it must pass pretty much as 
it is. 

Brougham has been getting into a squabble with the 
military. At the drawing-room on Thursday they refused to let 
his carriage pass through the Horse Guards, when he ordered 
his coachman to force his way through, which he did. He 
was quite wrong, and it was very unbecoming and undignified. 
Lord Londonderry called for an explanation in the House 
of Lords, when Brougham made a speech, and a very lame 
one. He said he ordered his coachman to go back, who did 
not hear him and went on, and when he had got through he 
thought it was not worth while to turn back. The Lords 
laughed. A few days after he drove over the soldiers in 
Downing Street, who were relieving guard ; but this time he 
did no great harm to the men, and it was not his fault, but 
these things are talked of. 

Dined yesterday with General Macdonald to meet the 
Kembles. Miss Fanny is near being very handsome from 
the extraordinary expression of her countenance and fine 
eyes, but her figure is not good. She is short, hands and 

VOL. II. K 



130 EEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

feet large, arms handsome, skin dark and coarse, and her 
manner wants ease and repose. Her mother is a very agree- 
able woman. I did not sit next to Fanny, and had no talk 
with her afterwards. 

March 18th. — Met Bobert Clive yesterday morning ; very 
low about the Bill, which he thinks so sure to be carried 
that he questions the expediency of dividing on the second 
reading ; complained bitterly of the bad tactics and want of 
union of the party, and especially of Peel's inactivity and 
backwardness in not having rallied and taken the lead more 
than he has; he is in fact so cold, phlegmatic, and calculat- 
ing that he disgusts those who can't do without him as a 
leader; he Avill always have political but never personal 
influence. 

March 20th. — On Friday night, after not a long but an 
angry and noisy debate, there was a division on the timber 
duties, and Government was beaten by forty-three, all the 
Saints, West Indians, and anti-Free-traders voting with the 
great body of Opposition. Their satisfaction was tumultuous. 
They have long been desirous of bringing Ministers to a trial 
of strength, and they did not care much upon what; they 
wanted to ]et the world see the weakness of Government, 
and besides on this occasion they hoped that a defeat might 
be prejudicial to the Reform Bill, so that this matter of com- 
mercial and fiscal policy is not decided on its own merits, but 
is influenced by passion, violence, party tactics, and its 
remote bearing upon another question with which it has no 
immediate relation. Althorp was obliged to abandon his 
original proposition of taking off 5s. from the duty on Baltic 
timber, which is 55s. (and 45s. on deals), and adding 10s. to 
the Canadian, which is already 10s. He proposed instead to 
take off 6s. from the former this year, 6s. next, and 3s. next, 
so as to give plenty of time for the withdrawal of capital, 
and to meet all contingencies. The proposal was not unfair, 
and mother times would have been carried. Poulett Thom- 
son made a very good speech, clear and satisfactory. Peel 
was what is called very factious — that is, in opposition — just 
what the others were, violent and unreasonable as far as the 



1831] THE EEFOEM BILL. 131 

question is concerned, but acting upon a system having for 
its object to embarrass the Government. 

I still think the second reading of the Eeform Bill will 
pass, and, all things considered, that it would be the best 
thing that could happen; it is better to capitulate than 
to be taken by storm. The people are unanimous, good- 
humoured, and determined ; if the Bill is thrown out, their 
good humour will disappear, the country will be a scene of 
violence and uproar, and a most ferocious Parliament will 
be returned, which will not only carry the question of 
Eeform, but possibly do so in a very different form. We 
should see the irce leonum vincla recusantum, and this propo- 
sition is so evident, this state of things is so indisputable, 
that it is marvellous to me how anybody can triumph and 
exult in the anticipation of a victory the consequences of 
which would be more unfortunate than a defeat. If indeed 
a victory could set the matter at rest, confirm our present in- 
stitutions, and pacify the people, it would be very well ; but 
Eeform the people will have, and no human power, moral or 
physical, can now arrest its career. It would be better, then, 
to concede with a good grace, and to modify the measure in 
Committee, which may still be practicable, than to oppose 
it point blank without a prospect of success. 

March 22nd. — The debate began again last night, and was 
adjourned. It was dull, and the House impatient. To-night 
they will divide, and after a thousand fluctuations of opinion 
it is thought the Bill will be thrown out by a small majority. 
Then will come the question of a dissolution, which one side 
affirms will take place directly, and the other that the King 
will not consent to it, knowing, as ' the man in the street ' (as 
we call him at Newmarket) always does, the greatest secrets 
of kings, and being the confidant of their most hidden 
thoughts. As for me, I see nothing but a choice of diffi- 
culties either way, and victory or defeat would be equally bad. 
It is odd enough, but I believe Lord Lansdowne thinks just 
the same, for he asked me yesterday morning what I expected 
would be the result, and I told him my opinion on the whole 
question, and he replied, c I can add nothing to what you 

X 2 



132 BEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

have said ; that is exactly my own opinion,' and I have very 
little doubt that more than half the Cabinet in their hearts 
abhor the measure. Knatchbull was taken ill in the morning", 
and could not go to the House at all. 

March 23rd. — The House divided at three o'clock this 
morning, and the second reading was carried by a majority 
of one in the fullest House that ever was known — 303 to 302 — 
both parties confident up to the moment of division ; but the 
Opposition most so, and at last the Government expected to 
be beaten. Denman told somebody as they were going to 
divide that the question would be lost; Calcraft and the 
Wynnes' going over at the eleventh hour did the business. 
I believe that this division is the best thing that could 
happen, and so I told the Duke in the morning, and that I 
had wished it to be carried by a small majority ; I met him 
walking with Arbuthnot in the Park. He said, ' I could not 
take such a course ' (that was in answer to my saying I 
wished it to be read a second time, to be lost in the Com- 
mittee). I said, 'But you would have nothing to do with it 
personally.' 6 No ; but as belonging to the party I could not 
recommend such a course,' which seemed as if he did not 
altogether disagree with my view of it. I stopped at the 
6 Travellers ' till past three, when a man came in and told me 
the news. I walked home, and found the streets swarming 
with members of Parliament coming from the House. My 
belief is (if they manage well and are active and determined) 
that the Bill will be lost in Committee, and then this will be 
the best thing that could have occurred. 

March 24>th. — The agitation the other night on the divi- 
sion was prodigious. The Government, who stayed in the 
House, thought they had lost it by ten, and the Opposition, 
who were crowded in the lobby, fancied from their numbers 
that they were sure of winning. There was betting going on 
all night long, and large sums have been won and lost. The 
people in the lobby were miscounted, and they thought they 
had 303. At the levee yesterday and Council ; the Govern- 
ment are by way of being satisfied, but hardly can be. I met 
the Duke of Wellington afterwards, who owned to me that he 



1831] REFORM BILL CARRIED BY OSE VOTE. 133 

thought this small majority for the Bill was on the whole the 
best thing that could have occurred, and that seems to be the 
opinion generally of its opponents. 

Nothing particularly at the levee ; Brougham very good 
fun. The King, who had put off going to the Opera on 
account of the death of his son-in-law Kennedy, appeared in 
mourning (crape, that is), which is reckoned bad taste; the 
public allow natural feeling to supersede law and etiquette, 
but it is too much to extend that courtesy to a ' son-in-law,' 
and his daughter is not in England. Somebody said that 
6 it was the first time a King of England had appeared in 
mourning that his subjects did not wear.' In the evening to 
the Ancient Concert, where the Queen was, and by-the-bye 
in mourning, and the Margravine and Duchess of Gloucester 
too, but they (the two latter) could hardly be mourning for 
Lord Cassilis's son. Horace Seymour, Meynell, and Calvert 
were all turned out of their places in the Lord Chamberlain's 
department on account of their votes the other night. 

The change of Ministers at Paris and Casimir Perier's 
speech have restored something like confidence about French 
affairs. The Prince of Orange is gone back to Holland, to his 
infinite disgust; he was escorted by Lady Dudley Stewart 
and Mrs. Fox as far as Gravesend, I believe, where they were 
found the next day in their white satin shoes and evening 
dresses. He made a great fool of himself here, and destroyed 
any sympathy there might have been for his political mis- 
fortunes; supping, dancing, and acting, and little (rather 
innocent) orgies at these ladies' houses formed his habitual 
occupation. 

A sort of repose from the cursed Bill for a moment, but 
it is said that many who opposed it before are going to sup- 
port it in Committee ; nobody knows. When the Speaker 
put the question, each party roared ' Aye ' and * ISTo ' totis 
viribus. He said he did not know, and put it again. After 
that he said, ' I am not sure, but I think the ayes have it.' 
Then the noes went out into the lobby, and the others thought 
they never would have done filing out, and the House looked 
so empty when they were gone that the Government was in 



134 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

despair. They say the excitement was beyond anything. I 
continue to hear great complaints of Peel — of his coldness, 
incommunicativeness, and deficiency in all the qualities 
requisite for a leader, particularly at such a time. There is 
nobody else, or he would be deserted for any man who had 
talents enough to take a prominent part, so much does he 
disgust his adherents. Nobody knows what are his 
opinions, feelings, wishes, or intentions ; he will not go en 
avant, and nobody feels any dependence upon him. There is 
no help for it and the man's nature can't be altered. I said 
all this to Eoss yesterday, his devoted adherent, and he was 
obliged to own it, with all kinds of regrets and endeavours to 
soften the picture. 

April 14th. — The Reform campaign has reopened with a 
violent speech from Hunt denouncing the whole thing as a 
delusion ; that the people begin to find out how they are 
humbugged, and that as it will make nothing cheaper they 
don't care about it. The man's drift is not very clear 
whether the Bill is really unpalatable at Preston or whether 
he wants to go further directly. At the same time John 
Russell announced some alterations in the Bill, not, as he 
asserted, trenching upon its principle, but, as the Opposition 
declares, altering it altogether. On the whole, these things 
have inspirited its opponents, and, as they must produce 
delay, are in so far bad for the Beform cause. Besides, 
though the opinion of the country is universally in its favour, 
people are beginning to think that it may be rejected without 
any apprehension of such dreadful consequences ensuing as 
have been predicted. Then the state of Ireland is such that 
it is thought the Ministers cannot encounter a dissolution, 
not that I feel any security on that head, for I believe the 
Cabinet is ruled by two or three men reckless of everything 
provided they can prolong their own power. 

April 24th. — At Newmarket all last week, and returned 
±o town last night to hear from those who saw them the extra- 
ordinary scenes in both Houses of Parliament (the day before) 
which closed the eventful week. The Reform battle began 
again on Monday last. The night before I went out of town 



1831] DEFEAT AND DISSOLUTION. 135 

I met Duncannon, and walked with him up Regent Street, 
when he told me that he did not believe the Ministers wonld 
be beaten, but if they were they should certainly dissolve 
instantly ; that he should have liked to dissolve long ago, 
but they owed it to their friends not to have recourse to a 
dissolution if they could help it. On Monday General 
Gascoyne moved that the Committee should be instructed 
not to reduce the members of the House of Commons, and 
this was carried after two nights' debate by eight. The dis- 
solution was then decided upon. Meanwhile Lord Wharn- 
cliffe gave notice of a motion to address the King not to 
dissolve Parliament, and this was to have come on on Friday. 
On Thursday the Ministers were again beaten in the House 
of Commons on a question of adjournment, and on Friday 
morning they got the King to go down and prorogue Parlia- 
ment in person the same day. This coup cVetat was so 
sudden that nobody was aware of it till within two or three 
hours of the time, and many not at all. They told him that 
the cream-coloured horses could not be got ready, when he 
said, ' Then I will go with anybody else's horses.' Somebody 
went off in a carriage to the Tower, to fetch the Crown, and 
they collected such attendants as they could find to go with 
his Majesty. The Houses met at one or two o'clock. In the 
House of Commons Sir R. Vyvyan made a furious speech, 
attacking the Government on every point, and (excited as he 
was) it was very well done. The Ministers made no reply, 
but Sir Francis Burdett and Tennyson endeavoured to inter- 
rupt with calls to order, and when the Speaker decided that 
Vyvyan was not out of order Tennyson disputed his opinion, 
which enraged the Speaker, and soon after called up Peel, 
for whom he was resolved to procure a hearing. The scene 
then resembled that which took place on Lord North's 
resignation in 1782, for Althorp (I think) moved that Burdett 
should be heard, and the Speaker said that ' Peel was in 
possession of the House to speak on that motion.' He made 
a very violent speech, attacking the Government for their 
incompetence, folly, and recklessness, and treated them with 
the utmost asperity and contempt. In the midst of his 



136 REIGN 01< WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

speech the guns announced the arrival of the King, and at 
each explosion the Government gave a loud cheer, and Peel 
was still speaking in the midst of every sort of noise and 
tumult when the Usher of the Black Rod knocked at the door 
to summon the Commons to the House of Peers. There 
the proceedings were if possible still more violent and out- 
rageous ; those who were present tell me it resembled 
nothing but what we read of the i Serment du Jeu de Pauine,' 
and the whole scene was as much like the preparatory days 
of a revolution as can well be imagined. WharnclifFe was 
to have moved an address to the Crown against dissolving 
Parliament, and this motion the Ministers were resolved 
should not come on, but he contrived to bring it on so far as 
to get it put upon the Journals. The Duke of Richmond 
endeavoured to prevent any speaking by raising points of 
order, and moving that the Lords should take their regular 
places (in separate ranks), which, however, is impossible at 
a royal sitting, because the cross benches are removed ; this 
put Lord Londonderry in such a fury that he rose, roared, 
gesticulated, held up his whip, and four or five Lords held 
him down by the tail of his coat to prevent his flying on 
somebody. Lord Lyndhurst was equally furious, and some 
sharp words passed which were not distinctly heard. In the 
midst of all the din Lord Mansfield rose and obtained a 
hearing. Wharncliffe said to him, 6 For God's sake, Mans- 
field, take care what you are about, and don't disgrace us 
more in the state we are in.' c Don't be afraid,' he said ; ' I 
will say nothing that will alarm you ; ' and accordingly he 
pronounced a trimming philippic on the Government, which, 
delivered as it was in an imposing manner, attired in his 
robes, and with the greatest energy and excitation, was pro- 
digiously effective. While he was still speaking, the King 
arrived, but he did not desist even while his Majesty 1 was 

1 When Lord Mansfield sat down he said, ' I have spoken English to 
them at least.' Lord Lyndhurst told me that Lord Mnnsfield stopped 
speaking as soon as the door opened to admit the King. He said he never 
saw him so excited before, and in his robes he looked very grand. He also 
told me that he was at Lady Holland's giving an account of the scene 
when Brougham came in. He said, ' I was telling them what passed the 



1S31] THE KING DISSOLVES PARLIAMENT. 137 

entering the House of Lords, nor till he approached the 
throne ; and while the King was ascending the steps, the 
hoarse voice of Lord Londonderry was heard crying ' Hear, 
hear, hear ! ' The King from the robing-room heard the 
noise, and asked what it all meant. The conduct of the 
Chancellor was most extraordinary, skipping in and out of 
the House and making most extraordinary speeches. In 
the midst of the uproar he went out of the House, w T hen 
Lord Shaftesbury was moved into the chair. In the middle 
of the debate Brougham again came in and said, 'it was 
most extraordinary that the King's undoubted right to dis- 
solve Parliament should be questioned at a moment when 
the House of Commons had taken the unprecedented course 
of stopping the supplies/ and having so said (which was a 
lie) he flounced out of the House to receive the King on his 
arrival. The King ought not properly to have worn the 
Crown, never having been crowned ; but when he was in the 
robing-room he said to Lord Hastings, ' Lord Hastings, I 
wear the Crown ; where is it ? ' It was brought to him, and 
when Lord Hastings was going to put it on his head he said, 
6 Nobody shall put the Crown on my head but myself.' He 
put it on, and then turned to Lord Grey and said, ' Now, my 
Lord, the coronation is over.' George Yilliers said that in 
his life he never saw such a scene, and as he looked at the 
King upon the throne with the Crown loose upon his head, 
and the tall, grim figure of Lord Grey close beside him with 
the sword of state in his hand, it was as if the King had 
got his executioner by his side, and the whole picture looked 
strikingly typical of his and our future destinies. 

Such has been the termination of this Parliament and of 
the first act of the new Ministerial drama ; there never was 
aGovernment ousted with more ignominy than the last, nor 
a Ministry that came in with higher pretensions, greater 
professions, and better prospects than the present, but 

other day in our House,' when Brougham explained his part by saying that 
the Usher of the Black Rod (Tyrwhit) was at his elbow saying, ' My Lord 
Chancellor, you must come ; the King is waiting for you : come along; you 
must come/ and that he was thus dragged out of the House In this hurry 
and without having time to sit down or say any more. 



138 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

nothing ever corresponded less than their performances 
with their pretensions. The composition of the Government 
was radically defective, and with a good deal of loose talent 
there was so much of passion, folly, violence, and knavery, 
together with inexperience and ignorance mixed np with it, 
that from the very beginning they cut the sorriest possible 
figure. Such men as Eichmond, Durham, Althorp, and 
Graham, in their different ways, were enough to spoil any 
Cabinet, and consequently their course has been marked by 
a series of blunders and defeats. Up to the moment of the 
dissolution few people expected it would happen, some 
thinking the King would not consent, others that the 
Government would never venture upon it, but the King is 
weak and the Ministry reckless. That disposition, which at 
first appeared so laudable, of putting himself implicitly into 
the hands of his Ministers, and which seemed the more so 
from the contrast it afforded to the conduct of the late King, 
who was always thwarting his Ministers, throwing diffi- 
culties in their way, and playing a double part, becomes 
vicious when carried to the extent of paralysing all free 
action and free opinion on his part, and of suffering himself 
to be made the instrument of any measures, however violent. 
It may be said, indeed, that he cordially agrees with these 
men, and has opinions coincident with theirs, but this is not 
probable ; and when we remember his unlimited confidence in 
the Duke up to the moment of his resignation, it is impossible 
to believe that he can have so rapidly imbibed principles the 
very reverse of those which the Duke maintained. 1 It is 
more likely that he has no opinions, and is really a mere 
puppet in the hands into which he may happen to fall. Lord 
Mansfield had an audience, and gave him his sentiments 
upon the state of affairs. He will not say what passed 
between them, but it is clear that it was of no use. 

The Queen and the Royal Family are extremely unhappy 
at all these things, but the former has no influence whatever 

1 The King was extremely opposed to the dissolution, and had remon- 
strated against it ever since it was first proposed to him in March. See 
Lord Grey's letter in the < Times ' of March 26, 1866. 



1831] THE GENERAL ELECTION. 139 

with the King. In the meantime there are very different 
opinions as to the result of the elections, some thinking that 
Government will not gain much by the dissolution, others 
that they (or at least Eeform) will win everything. It seems 
to me quite impossible that they should not win everything, 
but time is gained to the other side. The census of 1831 will 
be out, and the chapter of accidents may and must make much 
difference ; still I see no possibility of arresting the progress 
of Eeform, and whether this Bill or another like it passes is 
much the same thing. The Government have made it up 
with O'Connell, which is one mouthful of the dirty pudding 
they have had to swallow, as one of their own friends said of 
them. 

April 26th. — Last night at the Queen's ball ; heaps of 
people of all sorts ; everybody talking of the elections. Both 
parties pretend to be confident, but the Government with 
the best reason. The county members, as Sefton says, are 
tumbling about like nine-pins, and though it seems not 
improbable that the Opposition will gain in the boroughs, 
they must lose greatly in the counties ; and we must not 
only look to the relative numbers, but to the composition of 
the respective parties. A large minority composed of borough 
nominees, corporation members, and only a sprinkling of 
what is called independence would not look well. Large 
sums have been subscribed on both sides, but on that of the 
Opposition there is a want of candidates more than of places 
to send them to. 

I met Lyndhurst last night, and asked him what it was 
he said in the House of Lords. He said it was nothing very 
violent, but that it was not heard. The Duke of Richmond 
had spoken to the point of order, and said in a very marked 
way c he saw a noble Earl sitting by a junior Baron.' This 
was Lyndhurst, who was offended at the sneer upon his want 
of anciennete, and who retorted that before the noble Duke 
made such speeches on points of order he would do well to 
make himself acquainted with the orders of the House, of 
which it was obvious he knew nothing. The Duke of Devon- 
shire told Lady Lyndhurst that her husband ought to resign 



140 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

his judicial situation because he had displayed hostility to 
Government the other night, but it would be a new maxim 
to establish that the judges were to be amenable to the 
Minister for their political opinions and Parliamentary con- 
duct. 

April 29th. — The night before last there was an illu- 
mination, got up by the foolish Lord Mayor, which of course 
produced an uproar and a general breaking of obnoxious 
windows. Lord Mansfield and the Duke of Buccleuch went 
to Melbourne in the morning and remonstrated, asking what 
protection he meant to afford to their properties. A gun 
(with powder only) was fired over the heads of the mob from 
Apsley House, and they did not go there again. The Govern- 
ment might have discouraged this manifestation of triumph, 
but they wished for it for the purpose of increasing the 
popular excitement. They don't care what they do, or what 
others do, so ]ong as they can keep the people in a ferment. 
It is disgusting to the last degree to hear their joy and ex- 
ultation at the success of their measures and the good pros- 
pects held out to them by the elections ; all of which may 
turn out very well, but if it does not ' who shall set noddy - 
doddy up again ? ' Lord Cleveland has subscribed 10,000?. to 
the election fund. 

Lord Yarborough, by a very questionable piece of political 
morality, has given the Holmes boroughs in the Isle of Wight 
to Government ; they are the property 1 of Sir L. Holmes's 
daughter, whose guardian he is as well as executor under 
the will. In this capacity he has the disposal of the boroughs, 
and he gives them to the Ministers to fill with men who are 
to vote for their disfranchisement. A large price is paid for 
them — 4,000?. — but it makes a difference of eight votes, and if 
the Bill is carried they will be worth nothing. The elections 
promise well for Government even in the boroughs, as I was 
persuaded they would. O'Connell has put forth a proclama- 
tion entreating, commanding peace, order, and support of the 
Bill's supporters. Tom Moore called on me yesterday morning. 
He said that he was a Eeformer and liked the Bill, but he 
was fully aware of all that it might produce of evil to the 



1831] THE QUEEN ALARMED IN THE CITY. 141 

present system. He owned frankly that he felt like an Irish- 
man, and that the wrongs of Ireland and the obstinacy of 
the faction who had oppressed her still rankled in his heart, 
and that he shonld not be sorry at any vengeance which 
might overtake them at last. I hear renewed complaints of 
Peel, of his selfish, cold, calculating, cowardly policy; that 
we are indebted to him principally for our present condition 
I have no doubt — to his obstinacy and to his conduct in the 
Catholic question first, to his opposition and then to his sup- 
port of it. Opposing all and every sort of Reform totis viribus 
while he dared, now he makes a death-bed profession of 
acquiescence in something which should be more moderate 
than this. All these things disgust people inconceivably, and 
it is not the less melancholy that he is our only resource, and 
his capacity for business and power in the House of Com- 
mons places him so far above all his competitors that if we 
are to have a Conservative party we must look to him alone 
to lead it. 

May 7th. — Nothing could go on worse than the elections 
— Reformers returned everywhere, so much so that the 
contest is over, and we have only to await the event and 
see what the House of Lords will do. In the House of 
Commons the Bill is already carried. It is supposed that the 
Ministers themselves begin to be alarmed at the devil they 
have let loose, and well they may ; but he is out, and stop 
him who can. The King has put off his visit to the City 
because he is ill, as the Government would have it believed, 
but really because he is. furious with the Lord Mayor at all 
the riots and uproar on the night of the illumination. That 
night the Queen went to the Ancient Concert, and on her 
return the mob surrounded the carriage ; she had no guards, 
and the footmen were obliged to beat the people off with 
their canes to prevent their thrusting their heads into the 
coach. She was frightened and the King very much annoyed. 
He heard the noise and tumult, and paced backwards and 
forwards in his room waiting for her return. When she 
came back Lord Howe, her chamberlain, as usual preceded 
her, when the King said, ' How is the Queen ? ' and went 



142 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

down to meet her. Howe, who is an eager anti-Reformer, 
said, e Yery much frightened, sir,' and made the worst of it. 
She was in fact terrified, and as she detests the whole of 
these proceedings, the more distressed and disgusted. The 
King was very angry and immediately declared he would 
not go to the City at all. It is supposed that Government 
will make a large batch of Peers to secure the Bill in the 
House of Lords, but the press have already begun to attack 
that House, declaring that if they pass the Bill it will be 
from compulsion, and if they do not that they are the ene- 
mies of the people. 

May 11th. — The elections are going on universally iris 
favour of Reform; the great interests in the counties are 
everywhere broken, and old connexions dissevered. In Wor- 
cestershire Captain Spencer, who has nothing to do with the 
county, and was brought there by his brother-in-law, Lord 
Lyttelton, has beaten Lygon, backed by all the wealth of his 
family ; the Manners have withdrawn from Leicestershire and 
Cambridgeshire, and Lord E. Somerset from Gloucester- 
shire ; Lord Worcester too is beaten at Monmouth. Every- 
where the tide is irresistible ; all considerations are sacrificed 
to the success of the measure. At the last Essex election 
Colonel Tyrrell saved Western, who would have been beaten 
by Long Wellesley, and now Western has coalesced with Wel- 
lesley against Tyrrell, and will throw him out. In North- 
amptonshire Althorp had pledged himself to Cartwright not 
to bring forward another candidate on his side, and Milt on 
joins him and stands. The state of .excitement, doubt, and 
apprehension which prevails will not quickly subside, for th e 
battle is only beginning; when the Bill is carried we must 
prepare for the second act. 

May lAtih. — The elections are still going for Reform. They 
count upon a majority of 140 in the House of Commons, but 
the Tories meditate resistance in the House of Lords, which 
it is to be hoped will be fruitless, and it is probable the Peers 
will trot round as they did about the Catholic question when 
it comes to the point. There is a great hubbub at Northamp- 
ton about a pledge which Althorp is supposed to have 



1831] LORD MUNSTER'S PEERAGE. 143 

given not to bring forward another candidate against Cart- 
wright, which the anti-Eeformers say he has violated in 
putting up Milton, and moreover that such conduct is very 
dishonest ; and as his honesty was his principal recommenda- 
tion, if he should have forfeited that what would remain to 
him ? On the contrary his friends say that he gave no such 
pledge, that he expressed a hope there might be no contest, 
but the people would have Milton, and though Althorp re- 
gretted his standing, as he did stand they were obliged to 
join for their common safety. So much for this electioneering 
squabble, of which time will elicit the truth. Last night I 
went to Prince Leopold's, where was George Fitzciarence 
receiving congratulations on his new dignity (Earl of 
Munster). He told me everybody had been very kind about 
it — theKing, Lord Grey, his friends, and the public. He had 
told Lord Grey he was anxious his brothers and sisters 
should have the rank of marquis's sons and daughters (to 
give them titles). Grey had only objected that their titles 
would then represent a higher rank than his own, 1 but that 
he laid no stress on that objection, and it would be done 
directly. Melbourne has written a letter to the Lord Mayor 
assuring him that ill health is the only obstacle to the King's 
visit to the City, and that there is no foundation for the 
report of his displeasure, the Lord Mayor's explanation 
having proved quite satisfactory. This is not true, I believe, 
but they make him say so. 

May 22nd. — At Epsom all last week for the races at a 
house which Lord Chesterfield took ; nobody there but the 
three sisters 2 and their two husbands. Eode out on the downs 
every morning, and enjoyed the fine country, as beautiful as 
any I have seen of the kind. After the races on Friday 
I went to Eichmond to dine with Lord and Lady Lyndhurst, 
and was refreshed by his vigorous mind after the three or 
four days I had passed. He thinks the state of things very 
bad, has a great contempt for this Government, is very 

1 [If Lord Grey said thi3 it was a mistake. The younger sous and 
daughters of marquises take rank after earls.] 

2 [Lady Chesterfield, Mrs. Anson, and Miss Forester.] 



144 REIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

doubtful what will happen, thinks Lord Grey will not stand, 
and that Brougham will be Chancellor and Prime Minister, 
like Clarendon; he talked of the late Government, the Duke 
of Wellington and Peel ; he said that the former meddled 
with no department but that of Foreign Affairs, which he 
conducted entirely; that he understood them better than 
anything else, and if he came into office again would be 
Foreign Secretary ; that in the Cabinet he was always can- 
did, reasonable, and ready to discuss fairly every subject, but 
not so Peel. He, if his opinion was not adopted, would take 
up a newspaper and sulk. Lyndhurst agreed with me about 
his manners, his coldness, and how he disgusted instead of 
conciliating people ; he said that when any of his friends in 
Parliament proposed to speak in any debate, he never en- 
couraged or assisted them, but answered with a dry ' Do you ? ' 
to their notification of a wish or intention. He said that this 
Bill was drawn up by Lambton himself, but so ill done, so 
ignorantly and inefficiently, that they were obliged to send 
for Harrison, who, in conjunction with the Attorney- General, 
drew it up afresh ; that when John Russell brought it for- 
ward the Bill was still undrawn. 1 He says that there is not 
the least doubt they never had an idea of bringing forward 
any such measure as this till they found themselves so weak 
in the House of Commons that nothing but a popular cry and 
Radical support could possibly save them. It is very remark- 
able when we look back to the moment of the dissolution of 
the late Government, when Brougham was in the House of 
Commons armed with his Bill, which, though unknown, was 
so dreaded, and which turns out to have been mere milk and 
water compared with this. He said Brougham was offered 
the Attorney-Generalship by a note, which he tore in pieces 
and stamped upon, and sent word that there was no answer ; 
that he has long aspired to be Chancellor, and wished to get 
into the House of Lords. He ridicules his pretensions to 

1 [Compare the details of the preparation of the Keform Bill published 
by Lord Russell in the last edition of his 'Essay on the British Constitution.' 
Much of this conversation of Lord Lyndhurst's is extremely wide of the 
truth, but it is retained to show what was said and believed by competent 
persons at the time.] 



1831] LORD BROUGHAM AS A JUDGE. 145 

such, wonderfal doings in his Court and in the Bills he has an- 
nounced ; says that he has decided no bankruptcy cases, and, 
except some Scotch appeals in the House of Lords, has got 
rid of hardly any arrears; and as to his Bills, the Bank- 
ruptcy Bill was objectionable and the Chancery Bill he has 
never brought on at all ; that he knows he affects a short cut 
to judicial eminence, but that without labour and reading 
he cannot administer justice in that Court, although no 
doubt his great acuteness and rapid perception may often 
enable him at once to see the merits of a case and hit upon 
the important points. This he said in reply to what I 
told him of Brougham's trumpeter Sefton, who echoes from 
his own lips that c the Court of Chancery is such a sinecure 
and mere child's play.' 

In the meantime the elections have been going languidly 
on, and are now nearly over ; contrary to the prognostications 
of the Tories, they have gone off very quietly, even in Ire- 
land not many contests, the anti-Reformers being unable to 
make any fight at all ; except in Shropshire they are dead- 
beat everywhere. Northamptonshire the sharpest contest, 
and the one which has made the most ill blood ; this par- 
ticular election has produced a good deal of violence ; else- 
where the Reformers have it hollow, no matter what the 
characters of the candidates, if they are only for the Bill. 
Calcraft and Wellesley, the former not respected, the latter 
covered with disgrace, have beat Bankes and Tyrrell. Low- 
ther had not a chance in Cumberland, where Sir James 
Graham got into another scrape, for in an impertinent speech 
he made an attack upon Scarlett, which drew upon him a 
message and from him an apology. Formerly, when a man 
made use of offensive expressions and was called to account, 
he thought it right to go out and stand a shot before he ate 
his words, but now-a-days that piece of chivalry is dispensed 
with, and politicians make nothing of being scurrilous one 
day and humble the next. Hyde Villiers has been appointed 
to succeed Sandon at the Board of Control as a Whig and a 
Reformer. He was in a hundred minds what line he should 
take, and had written a pamphlet to prove the necessity of 

VOL. II. L 



146 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

giving Ministers seats in both Houses (as in France), which 
he has probably put in the fire. I am very glad he has got 
the place, and though his opinions were not very decided 
before, he has always bee'n anti-Tory, and has done nothing 
discreditable to get it, and it was offered to him in a very 
flattering manner. 

May 28th. — Yesterday Lord Grey was invested with the 
blue ribband, though there is no vacancy ; the only precedent 
is that of Lords Liverpool and Castlereagh (which was 
thought wrong), but it was on the occasion of the peace 
after Bonaparte's overthrow and when Castlereagh returned 
with such eclat from Paris that the whole House of Commons 
rose and cheered him as he entered it. 

I met Alexander Baring the other night, who said it was 
certain that the King was full of regrets at the extent of the 
measures into which he had been hurried, when I told him 
of Lord Grey's Garter, and asked him what he said to that, 
and how that bore out the assertion of the King's regrets. 
The fact is that although on one side a most indecent though 
effectual use of the King's name has been made, on the other 
there is nothing that is not asserted with equal confidence 
about ' his difficulties and his scruples.' Sefton told me that 
it was the sort of things that were said that made the King 
write to Lord Grey (he saw the letter) and tell him that he 
thought it of the greatest importance at the present moment 
to confer upon him a signal mark of his regard and of his 
satisfaction with- the whole of his conduct. It is, I believe, 
true that the King felt some alarm and some doubt about 
the dissolution, but I do not believe that he has any doubts 
or fears at present. Indeed, how should he not have suffered 
himself to be led away by these people and to become iden- 
tified with their measure ? They have given him an ample 
share of the praise of it ; they assure him it will be eminently 
successful; he sees himself popular and applauded to the 
skies, and as far as things have gone it has been successful, 
for the elections have gone on and gone off very peaceably, 
and the country in expectation of the passing of the Bill is 
in a state of profound tranquillity. 



1831] THE KING AT ASCOT. 147 

June oth. — All last week at Fern Hill for the Ascot races ; 
the Chesterfields, Tavistocks, Belfasts, George Ansons, Mon- 
tague, Stradbroke, and Brooke G-reville were there. The Royal 
Family came to the course the first day with a great cortege — 
eight coaches and four, two phaetons, pony sociables, and 
led horses — Minister riding on horseback behind the King's 
carriage, Augustus (the parson) and Frederick driving phae- 
tons. The Duke of Richmond was in the King's caleche 
and Lord Grey in one of the coaches. The reception was 
strikingly cold and indifferent, not half so good as that 
which the late King used to receive. William was bored 
to death with the races, and his own horse broke down. On 
Wednesday he did not come ; on Thursday they came again. 
Beautiful weather and unprecedented multitudes. The King 
was much more cheered than the first day, or the greater 
number of people made a greater noise. A few cheers were 
given to Lord Grey as he returned, which he just acknow- 
ledged and no more. On Friday we dined at the Castle; 
each day the King asked a crowd of people from the neigh- 
bourhood. We arrived at a little before seven ; the Queen 
was only just come in from riding, so we had to wait till 
near eight. Above forty people at dinner, for which the 
room is not nearly large enough ; the dinner was not bad, 
but the room insufferably hot. The Queen was taken 
out by the Duke of Richmond, and the King followed 
with the Duchess of Saxe Weimar, the Queen's sister. He 
drinks wine with everybody, asking seven or eight at a time. 
After dinner he drops asleep. We sat for a short time. 
Directly after coffee the band began to play ; a good band, 
not numerous, and principally of violins and stringed instru- 
ments. The Queen and the whole party sat there all the 
evening, so that it was, in fact, a concert of instrumental 
music. The King took Lady Tavistock to St. George's Hall 
and the ball room, where we walked about, with two or three 
servants carrying lamps to show the proportions, for it was 
not lit up. The whole thing is exceedingly magnificent, and 
the manner of life does not appear to be very formal, and 
need not be disagreeable but for the bore of never dining 

L 2 



148 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

without twenty strangers. The Castle holds very few people, 
and with the King's and Queen's immediate suite and toute la 
bdtardise it was quite full. The King's four sons were 
there, signoreggianti tutti, and the whole thing 6 donnait a 
penser ' to those who looked back a little and had seen other 
days. We sat in that room in which Lyndhurst has often 
talked to me of the famous five hours' discussion with the 
late King, when the Catholic Bill hung upon his caprice. 
Palmerston told me he had never been in the Castle since 
the eventful day of Herries' appointment and non-appoint- 
ment; and how many things have happened since. What a 
changement de decoration; no longer George IV., capricious^ 
luxurious, and misanthropic, liking nothing but the society 
of listeners and flatterers, with the Conyngham tribe and 
one or two Tory Ministers and foreign Ambassadors ; but a 
plain, vulgar, hospitable gentleman, opening his doors to all 
the world, with a numerous family and suite, a Whig 
Ministry, no foreigners, and no toad-eaters at all. No- 
thing can be more different, and looking at him one sees 
how soon this act will be finished, and the same be changed 
for another probably not less dissimilar. Queen, bastards, 
Whigs, 1 all will disappear, and God knows what replaces 
them. Came to town yesterday, and found a quarrel between 
Henry Bentinck and Sir Eoger Gresley, which I had to 
settle, and did settle amicably in the course of the evening. 

June 7th. — Dined with Sefton yesterday, who gave me an 
account of a dinner at Fowell Buxton's on Saturday to see 
the brewery, at which Brougham was the c magnus Apollo.' 
Sefton is excellent as a commentator on Brougham ; he says 
that he watches him incessantly, never listens to anybody 
else when he is there, and rows him unmercifully afterwards 
for all the humbug, nonsense, and palaver he hears him talk 
to people. They were twenty-seven at dinner. Talleyrand 
was to have gone, but was frightened by being told that he 
would get nothing but beefsteaks and porter, so he stayed 

1 Not Whigs — they are ks bienvenus, which they were not before. — Juhj 

1838. 



1831] DINNER AT HANBURY'S BREWERY. 149 

away. They dined in the brewhouse and visited the whole 
establishment. Lord Grey was there in star, garter, and rib- 
band. There were people ready to show and explain every- 
thing, but not a bit — Brougham took the explanation of 
everything into his own hands — the mode of brewing, the 
machinery, down to the feeding of the cart horses. After 
dinner the account books were brought, and the young Bux- 
tons were beckoned up to the top of the table by their father 
to hear the words of wisdom that flowed from the lips of my 
Lord Chancellor. He affected to study the ledger, and made 
various pertinent remarks on the manner of book-keeping. 
There was a man whom Brougham called ' Cornelius' (Sefton 
did not know who he was) with whom he seemed very familiar. 
While Brougham was talking he dropped his voice, on which 
6 Cornelius ' said, c Earl Grey is listening,' that he might 
speak louder and so nothing be lost. He was talking of 
Paley, and said that ' although he did not always understand 
his own meaning, he always contrived to make it intelligible 
to others,' on which ' Cornelius ' said, ' My good friend, if he 
made it so clear to others he must have had some compre- 
hension of it himself; ' on which Sefton attacked him after- 
wards, and swore that ' he was a mere child in the hands of 
" Cornelius," ' that ' he never saw anybody so put down.' 
These people are all subscribers to the London Univer- 
sity, and Sefton swears he overheard Brougham tell them 
that ' Sir Isaac Newton was nothing compared to some of 
the present professors,' or something to that effect. I put 
down all this nonsense because it amused me in the recital, 
and is excessively characteristic of the man, one of the most 
remarkable who ever existed. Lady Sefton told me that he 
went with them to the British Museum, where all the officers 
of the Museum were in attendance to receive them. He 
would not let anybody explain anything, but did all the 
honours himself. At last they came to the collection of 
minerals, when she thought he must be brought to a stand- 
still. Their conductor began to describe them, when Broug- 
ham took the words out of his mouth, and dashed off with 



150 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

as much ease and familiarity as if lie liad been a Buckland 
or a Cuvier. Such is the man, a grand mixture of moral, 
political, and intellectual incongruities. 

June 10th. — Breakfasted the day before yesterday with 
Rogers, Sydney Smith, Luttrell, John Russell, and Moore ; 
excessively agreeable. I never heard anything more enter- 
taining than Sydney Smith ; such bursts of merriment and 
so dramatic. Breakfasts are the meals for poets. I met 
Wordsworth and Southey at breakfast. Rogers' are always 
agreeable. 

June 15th. — Five new peerages came out yesterday — 
Sefton, Kinnaird, Fingall, Leitrim, and Agar Ellis ; John 
Russell and Stanley are to be in the Cabinet. At the ball 
at St. James's the other night George Dawson told me that 
they had 270 people in the House of Commons on the side 
of the Opposition, if they could command their attendance ; 
that he did not mean to say no Reform Bill would pass, but 
that the details of this Bill had never yet been discussed, 
and when they were it w r ould be so clearly shown that it is 
impracticable that this identical measure never could pass. 
The Opposition are 'beginning to recover from their dis- 
couragement ; there is to be a meeting at Lord Mansfield's 
on Friday, and they do, I believe, mean to fight it out. 

June 19th. — The last few days I have been completely 
taken up with quarantine, and taking means to prevent the 
cholera coming here. That disease made great ravages in 
Russia last yea,r, and in the winter the attention of Govern- 
ment was called to it, and the question was raised whether 
we should have to purify goods coming here in case it broke 
out again, and if so how it was to be done. Government 
was thinking of Reform and other matters, and would not 
bestow much attention upon this subject, and accordingly 
neither regulations nor preparations were made. All that 
was done was to commission a Dr. Walker, a physician 
residing at St. Petersburg, to go to Moscow and elsewhere 
and make enquiries into the nature and progress of the 
disease, and report the result of his investigation to us. He 
turned out, however, to be a very useless and inefficient 



1831] THE CHOLERA. 151 

ao-ent. In the meantime as the warm weather returned the 
cholera again appeared in Russia, but still we took no fur- 
ther measures until intelligence arrived that it had reached 
Riga, at which place 700 or 800 sail of English vessels, 
loaded principally with hemp and flax, were waiting to come 
to this country. This report soon diffused a general alarm, 
and for many days past the newspapers have been full of 
letters and full of lies, and every sort of representation is 
made to Government or through the press, as fear or interest 
happen to dictate. The Consuls and Ministers abroad had 
been for some time supplying us with such information as 
they could obtain, so that we were in possession of a great 
deal of documentary evidence regarding the nature, cha- 
racter, and progress of the disease. The first thing we did 
was to issue two successive Orders in Council placing all 
vessels coming from the Baltic in quarantine, and we sent 
for Sir Henry Halford and placed all the papers we had in 
his hands, desiring that he would associate with himself 
some other practitioners, and report their opinion as speedily 
as possible whether the disease was contagious and whether 
it could be conveyed by goods. They reported the next day 
yes to the first question, no to the second. In 1804, on the 
occasion of the yellow fever at Gibraltar, Government formed 
a Board of Health, and took the opinion of the College of 
Physicians, and it was intended to pursue the same course 
in this instance, but Lords Lansdowne and Auckland chose 
to take Halford's preliminary opinion, contrary to my advice, 
for I foresaw that there would be a great embarrassment if 
he and the College did not agree. Just so it turned out, for 
when the case was submitted, with all the papers, to the 
College, they would not adopt his opinion, much to his 
annoyance, and, as I believe, because they did not like to be 
merely called on to confirm what he had already said, and 
that they thought their independence required a show of 
dissent. The report they sent was very short and very 
unsatisfactory, and entirely against all the evidence they 
had before them ; they advised precautionary measures. 1 
immediately wrote back an answer saying that their report 



152 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

was not satisfactory, and desiring a more detailed opinion, 
and the reasons which had dictated their conclusion ; but in 
the meantime we set to work in earnest to adopt measures 
against any emergenc} T . The only way of performing qua- 
rantine (with goods), it was found, would be by the employ- 
ment of men-of-war, and we accordingly asked the Admiralty 
to supply ships for the purpose. This Lord Grey, Sir James 
Graham, and Sir By am Martin objected to, but Sir Thomas 
Hardy and Captain Elliot did not. We proved that the ships 
would sustain no injury, so after a battle they agreed to give 
them. We made a variety of regulations, and gave strict 
orders for the due performance of quarantine, and to-morrow 
a proclamation is to be issued for constituting a Board of 
Health and enjoining obedience to the quarantine laws, so 
that everything has been done that can be done, and if the 
cholera comes here it is not our fault. Most of the autho- 
rities think it will come, but I doubt it. If indeed it is 
wafted through the air it may, but I don't think it will if 
it is only to be communicated by contact. All the evidence 
proves that goods cannot convey it ; nevertheless we have 
placed merchandise under a discretionary quarantine, and 
though we have not promulgated any general regulations, we 
release no vessels that come from infected places, or that 
have got enumerated goods on board. Poulett Thomson, 
who is a trader as well as Privy Councillor, is very much 
disgusted in his former capacity at the measures he is 
obliged to concur in in his latter. This topic has now oc- 
cupied for some days a good deal of the attention, even of 
the fine fools of this town, and the Tories would even make 
it a matter of party accusation against the Government, 
only they don't know exactly how. It is always safe to deal 
in generalities, so they say that ' Government ought to be 
impeached if the disease comes here.' 

There was a meeting of Peers to the amount of nearly 
seventy at Lord Mansfield's the other day, which went off 
greatly to their satisfaction. They unanimously agreed to 
determine upon nothing in the way of amendment until they 
had seen the King's Speech, to which, however, they will con- 



1831] MEETING OF PEERS. 153 

sider themselves bound to move an amendment, provided it 
contains anything laudatory of the Reform Bill. The Duke 
of Wellington was not at the meeting, having been taken ill. 
I met him the day before at dinner, and had a good deal of 
conversation with him. He is in pretty good spirits, and 
thinks they may make a good fight of it yet ; told me that 
Lyndhurst would certainly go thoroughly with them, praised 
him largely, said he was the best colleague that any man 
ever had, and that he should be very sorry ever to go into 
any Cabinet of which he was not a member. The King 
dined with the Duke yesterday, and was to give him a very 
fine sword. Aubin, who was to have acted in ' Hernani ' before 
the Queen on Wednesday next, is suddenly gone off to Rome 
as attache to Brook Taylor, who is there negotiating. 
Taylor happened to be in Italy, and they sent him there, 
some doubts existing whether they could by law send a 
diplomatic agent to negotiate with the Pope ; but it was 
referred to Denman, who said there was no danger. He is 
not accredited, and bears no official character, but it is a 
regular mission. Lord Lansdowne told me that Leopold is 
inconceivably anxious to be King of Belgium, that short of 
going in direct opposition to the wishes and advice of all the 
Royal Family and of the Government he would do any- 
thing to be beking'd, and, what is equally absurd, that the 
others cannot bear that he should be thus elevated. 

June 23rcZ. — The King opened Parliament on Tuesday, 
with a greater crowd assembled to see him pass than was 
ever congregated before, and the House of Lords was so full 
of ladies that the Peers could not find places. The Speech 
was long, but good, and such as to preclude the possibility 
of an amendment. There was, however, a long discussion 
in each House, and the greatest bitterness and violence 
evinced in both — every promise of a stormy session. Lord 
Lansdowne said to the King, ' I am afraid, sir, you won't be 
able to see the Commons.' ' Never mind,' said he ; ' they shall 
hear me, I promise you,' and accordingly he thundered forth 
the Speech so that not a word was lost. 

There has been a reconciliation between the Welling- 



154 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

tonians and the old Tories, and they are now firmly knit in 
opposition to the present Government. Winchilsea, who 
was the last Tory who stuck to Lord Grey, renounced him 
in a hot speech, which evidently annoyed Lord Grey very 
much, for he made a long one in reply to him. Winchilsea 
is a silly, blustering, but good-natured and well-meaning 
man. Last night ' Hernani J was acted at Bridgewater House 
before the Queen and all the Royal Family. Aubin, who had 
acted Don Ruy, was sent to Rome, so Francis Leveson took 
the part. I was disappointed, though all the company were 
or pretended to be in ecstasies. The rhyme does not do, 
the room is not good for hearing, and with the exception of 
Miss Kemble (who was not so effective as I expected) and 
Craven, the actors were execrable. 

News came the day before yesterday that Marshal Die- 
bitsch had died of the cholera. It was suspected that he 
had made away with himself, for he has failed so signally 
in his campaign against the Poles that his military re- 
putation is tarnished ; and it is known that his recall had 
been decreed, and that Count Paskiewitch was to succeed 
him. The alarm about the cholera still continues, but the 
Government are thrown into great perplexity by the danger 
on one hand of the cholera and the loss to trade on the 
other. A board of health has been formed, composed of 
certain members of the College of Physicians, Sir William 
Pym, Sir William Burnet, Sir Byam Martin, Sir James 
M'Grigor, and Mr. Stewart ; and they in their first sitting 
advised that all the precautions established by our Orders in 
Council against the plague should be adopted against the 
cholera. This opinion was given under the authority of 
Dr. Warren, who, it appears, exercises the same ascendency 
in this Board that he had previously done in the College of 
Physicians on the same subject. The fact is that he takes 
the safe side. They have nothing to do with trade and 
commerce, which must shift for themselves, and probably the 
other members will not take upon themselves the respon- 
sibility of opposing measures which, if the disease ever 



1831] PREVENTION OF CHOLEKA. 155 

appears here, and should they be relaxed, will expose the 
physicians to the odium and reproach of having been in- 
strumental to its introduction. We, however (Auckland, 
Poulett Thomson, and I), are resolved to make the Cabinet 
take upon themselves the responsibility of framing the per- 
manent rules which are to guide us during the continuance 
of the malady. It is remarkable that there never was more 
sickness than there is at present, without its being epidemic, 
but thousands of colds, sore throats, fevers, and such like ; 
and a man at Blackwall has died of the English cholera, and 
another is ill of it, but their disorders seem to have nothing 
to do with the Indian cholera, though some of the symptoms 
are similar. These men cannot have got their cholera from 
Russia, but their cases spread alarm. 

June 25th. — John Russell brought his Bill in last night, 
in a good speech as his friends, and a dull one as his enemies, 
say. In the Lords Aberdeen attacked Lord Grey's foreign 
policy in a poor speech, which just did to show his bitterness 
and as a peg for Grey to hang a very good reply upon. The 
Duke of Wellington spoke afterwards ; not much of a speech, 
but gentlemanlike and anti- factious, and approving of all Lord 
Grey had done about Belgium. Lord Grey passed a very 
fine eulogium upon Lord Ponsonby. However, this was 
necessary, for he is going as Minister to Naples, not having 
a guinea. The Emperor Don Pedro is coming here, and 
Henry Webster is to be his conductor. 

June 30th. — At Court yesterday to swear in the Duke of 
Leinster, Mr. Justice Vaughan, and Sir E. Hyde East. Lord 
Ponsonby was there, just returned from Brussels. The first 
time of Stanley's and John Russell's being at a Council 
since they came into the Cabinet. 

July 3rd.— Went to Oatlands on Saturday, returned on 
Monday ; nobody there but Emily Eden. Many revolutions 
that place has undergone in my time, from the days of the 
Duke of York and its gaieties (well remembered and much 
regretted) to its present quiet state. The Belgians have not 
yet made up their mind about Leopold, who does not know 



156 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

whether he is king or no king. The Eeform Bill came on 
again last night, but it no longer excites so much interest. 
Nobody spoke well but Lord Porchester. 

July hth. — The night before last Lord Harewood attacked 
Brougham in the House of Lords about the appointment of 
a magistrate without consulting him as Lord-Lieutenant. 
As usual his own party say he made out a good case, and 
the others that he made none. They say (and I believe with 
truth) that Brougham does not dislike such scrapes, and is 
so confident in his own ingenuity that he never doubts of 
getting out of them. Lyndhurst attacked him sharply. 
In the House of Commons last night the debate went on 
languidly, except a splendid speech from Macaulay and an 
answer (not bad, they say) from Murray. Lord Grey sent 
for me yesterday morning to talk over the coronation, for in 
consequence of what the Duke of Wellington said in the 
House the night before he thinks there must be one. The 
object is to make it shorter and cheaper than the last, 
which occupied the whole day and cost 240,000 1. 

July 8th. — The second reading of the Eeform Bill was 
carried at five in the morning by 136 majority, somewhat 
greater than the Opposition had reckoned on. Peel made a 
powerful speech, but not so good as either of his others on 
Eeform. Goulburn told me that the speech in answer to 
the Lord Advocate on the Irish Bill, when not 100 people 
were in the House, was his best. The coronation fixed for 
the 23rd. Breakfasted with Rogers ; went afterwards to the 
Duchess of Bedford's, where I met Lady Lyndhurst. I desired 
her to tell Lyndhurst all the Duke had said to me about him, 
for in these times it is as well they should draw together. He 
will be a match for Brougham in the House of Lords, for he 
can be concise, which the other cannot, and the Lords in the 
long run will prefer brevity to art, sarcasm, and anything 
else. 

People are beginning to recover from their terror of the 
cholera, seeing that it does not come, and we are now beset 
with alarms of a different kind, which are those of the 
Scotch merchants for their cargoes. We have a most 



1831] CONTEST IN POLAND. 157 

disagreeable business on our bands, very troublesome, odious, 
and expensive. Tbe public requires that we should take care 
of its health, the mercantile world that we should not inj ure 
their trade. All evidence proves that goods are not capable 
of bringing in the disorder, but we have appointed a Board 
of Health, which is contagionist, and we can't get them to 
subscribe to that opinion. We dare not act without its 
sanction, and so we are obliged to air goods. This airing 
requires more ships and lazarets than we have, and the result 
is a perpetual squabbling, disputing, and complaining between 
the Privy Council, the Admiralty, the Board of Health, and 
the merchants. We have gone on pretty well hitherto, but 
more ships arrive every day ; the complaints will grow louder, 
and the disease rather spreads than diminishes on the 
Continent. This cholera has afforded strong proofs of the 
partiality of the Prussians in the contest between the 
Russians and the Poles. The quarantine restrictions are 
always dispensed with for officers passing through the 
Prussian territory to join the Russian army. Count Pas- 
kiewitch was allowed to pass without performing any qua- 
rantine at all, and stores and provisions are suffered to be 
conveyed to the army, with every facility afforded by the 
Prussian authorities and every relaxation of the sanitary 
laws. The Duke of Wellington says that the contest will very 
soon be over, that the Russian army could not act before 
June, and that between February and June the country is 
not practicable for military operations. They have now so 
many months before them that the weight of their numerical 
superiority will crush the Poles. Austria and Prussia, too, 
do their utmost by affording every sort of indirect assistance 
to the Russians and thwarting the Poles as much as they 
can. 

July 10th. — The last two or three days I have been settling 
everything for the coronation, 1 which is to be confined to the 
ceremony in the Abbey and cost as little money and as 
little trouble as possible ; and yesterday I was the medium 

1 [The arrangements for coronations are made by a Committee of the 
rrivy Council, which sits as a Court of Claims.] 



158 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

of great civilities from Lord Grey to the Duke. He desired 
me to go to the Duke and show him the course of pro- 
ceeding we mean to adopt, and request him to make any 
suggestion that occurred to him, and to enquire if he would 
have any objection to attend the Council at which it is to be 
formally settled on Wednesday, to which Peel and Bosslyn 
are likewise invited. I spoke to the Duke and Peel, and 
they will both come. All this is mighty polite. 

They have made a fine business of Cobbett's trial ; his 
insolence and violence were past endurance, but he made an 
able speech. The Chief Justice was very timid, and favoured 
and complimented him throughout ; very unlike what Ellen- 
borough would have done. The jury were shut up the whole 
night, and in the morning the Chief Justice, Without consult- 
ing either party, discharged them, which was probably on the 
whole the best that could be done. Denman told me that 
he expected they would have acquitted him without leaving 
the box, and this principally on account of Brougham's 
evidence, for Cobbett brought the Chancellor forward and 
made him prove that after these very writings, and while 
this prosecution was hanging over him, Brougham wrote to 
his son c Dear Sir,' and requesting he would ask his father 
for some former publications of his, which he thought would be 
of great use on the present occasion in quieting the labourers. 
This made a great impression, and the Attorney-General 
never knew one word of the letter till he heard it in evi- 
dence, the Chancellor having flourished it off, as is his 
custom, and then quite forgotten it. The Attorney told me 
that Gurney overheard one juryman say to another, ' Don't 
you think we had better stop the case ? It is useless to go 
on.' The other, however, declared for hearing it out, so on 
the whole it ended as well as it might, just better than an 
acquittal, and that is all. 

July 11th. — Dined with Lord Grey yesterday. In the 
middle of dinner Talleyrand got a letter announcing that 
Leopold's conditional acceptance of the Belgian throne had 
been agreed to by a great majority of the Chamber; and a Mr. 
Walker, who brought the news (and left Brussels at five 



1831] WELLINGTON AND THE GOVERNMENT. 159 

o'clock the day before), came to Lord Grey and told hirn with 
what enthusiasm it had been received there. Lord Grey 
wrote to the Chancellor, with whom Leopold was dining, to 
tell him of the event. 

This morning I got a note from the Duke of Wellington 
declining to attend the Council on Wednesday, and desiring 
I would impart the same to Lord Grey and the King. He 
says that it would give rise to misrepresentations, and so it 
would. He is right to decline. It is, however, Peel who 
has prevented him, I am certain. When I told Peel on 
Saturday, he looked very grave, did not seem to like it, and 
said he must confer with the Duke first, as he should be 
sorry to do otherwise than he did. Yesterday I know the 
Duke dined with Peel, who I have no doubt persuaded him 
to send this excuse. The Government are in exceeding 
delight at the Duke's conduct ever since he has been in oppo- 
sition, which certainly has been very noble, straightforward, 
gentlemanlike, and without an atom of faction or mischief 
about it. He has done himself great honour ; he threw over 
Aberdeen completely on that business about foreign policy 
which he introduced soon after the meeting of Parliament, 
and now he is assisting the Government in their Lieutenancy 
Bill, and is in constant communication with Melbourne on 
the subject. 

July 13th. — I took the Duke's note to Lord Grey, who 
seemed annoyed, and repeated that he had only intended the 
invitation as a mark of attention, and never thought of 
shifting any responsibility from his own shoulders ; that as 
there was a deviation from the old ceremonial, he thought the 
Duke's sanction would have satisfied those who might other- 
wise have disputed the propriety of such a change. ' Does he 
then,' he asked, e mean to attend the Committee ? ' I did not 
then know ; but yesterday in the House of Lords I asked the 
Duke, and he said ' No, for the same reasons,' that upon con- 
sideration he was sure he had better not go, that by so doing 
he might give umbrage to his own party, and lie could only 
do good by exercising a powerful influence over them and re- 
straining them, and that his means of doing good would be 



160 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

impaired by any appearance of approximating himself to 
Government, that when the general plan of the arrange- 
ments was settled, he should have no objection to lend a 
helping hand, if wanted, to the details with which he was very 
conversant. I wrote on a slip of paper that he would not 
come, and gave it to Lord Grey, who said nothing. Peel 
did not write to me, but he and Rosslyn do the same as 
the Duke. 

The Belgian deputation came yesterday, and Lebeau and 
his colleagues were in the House of Lords. We had been 
promised a good day there between Londonderry and 
Brougham and Phmket, but the former made a tiresome, 
long speech ; the latter spoke civilly and dully ; and 
Brougham not at all, so it ended in smoke. In the other 
House on Monday the Ministers got a good majority (102) on 
the wine duties, to their great delight, but the Opposition were 
not only mortified at the defeat, but disgusted and enraged at 
the conduct of Peel (their leader, as they considered him), 
who came into the House, got up in the middle of Herries' 
speech, walked out and was heard of no more that night - y 
never voted, nor gave any notice of his intention not to vote. 
The moral effect of this upon his party is immense, and has 
served to destroy the very little confidence they had in him 
before. It is impossible to conceive by what motives he is 
actuated, because if they were purely selfish it would seem 
that he defeats his own object ; for what can he gain by dis- 
gusting and alienating his party, when although they cannot 
do without him, it is equally true that he cannot do without 
them ? I walked home with William Banks, who went 
largely into the whole question of Peel's extraordinary dispo- 
sition and conduct, and said how disheartening it was, and 
what a blow to those who looked to him as a leader in these 
troublous times. Henry Currey (no important person, but 
whose opinion is that of fifty other like him) told me that his 
conduct had been atrocious, and that he had himself voted in 
the minority against his opinion because he thought it right 
to sacrifice that opinion to the interests of his party. The- 
fact is, if Peel had imparted his sentiments to his party ha 



1831] EESEEVE OF MB. PEEL. 161 

might have prevented their dividing on this question with 
the greatest ease. There is nothing they are not ready to do 
at his bidding, but his coldness and reserve are so impene- 
trable that nobody can ascertain his sentiments or divine his 
intentions, and thus he leaves his party in the lurch without 
vouchsafing to give them any reason or explanation of his 
conduct. In the meantime the other party (as if each was 
destined to suffer more from the folly of its friends than the 
hostility of its foes) has been thrown into great confusion by 
Lord Milton's notice to propose an alteration in the franchise, 
and a meeting was called of all the friends of Government 
at Althorp, when Milton made a speech just such as any 
opponent of the Bill might make in the House of Commons, 
going over the old ground of Fox, Pitt, Burke, and others 
having sat for rotten boroughs. They were annoyed to the 
last degree, and the more provoked when reflecting that it was 
for him Althorp had been led to spend an immense sum of 
money, and compromise his character besides in the North- 
amptonshire election. His obstinacy and impracticability 
are so extreme that nobody can move him, and Sefton told 
me that nothing could be more unsatisfactory than the ter- 
mination of the meeting. I guess, however, that they will 
find some means or other of quieting him. 

The Opposition divided last night 187 against 284 on the 
question of hearing counsel for the condemned boroughs — not 
so good a division for the minority as they expected, and 
after a very powerful speech of Attwood's, to which nobody 
listened. 

There is a fresh access of alarm on account of the cholera, 
which has broken out at St. Petersburg, and will probably 
spread over Germany. The cordon of troops which kept it 
off last year from St. Petersburg appears to have been with- 
drawn, which is no doubt the cause of its appearance there. 
We have constant reports of supposed cases of disease and 
death, but up to this period it does not appear to have shown 
itself here, though a case was transmitted to us from 
Glasgow exceedingly like it. The sick man had not come from 

VOL. II. m 



162 KEIG2T OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

any infected place. The Board of Health are, however, in 
great alarm, and the authorities generally think we shall 
have it. From all I can observe from the facts of the case 
I am convinced that the liability to contagion is greatly 
diminished by the influence of sea air, for which reason I 
doubt that it will be brought here across the water. If it 
does come it will pass through France first. The King of 
Prussia has at last insisted upon a rigid execution of the 
quarantine laws in his dominions. Marshal Paskiewitch was 
detained on his road to take the command of the army, and 
sent a courier to the King to request he might be released 
forthwith, urging the importance of the Emperor to have his 
report of the state of the army ; but the King refused, and 
sent word that the Emperor himself had submitted to quaran- 
tine, and so his aide-de-camp might do the same. 

July lUli. — The effects of Peel's leaving the party to shift 
for itself were exhibited the night before last. He went away 
(there was no reason why he should not, except that he 
should have stayed to manage the debate and keep his people 
in order), and the consequence was that they went on in a 
vexatious squabble of repeated adjournments till eight o'clock 
in the morning, when Government at last beat them. The 
Opposition gradually dwindled down to twenty-five people, 
headed by Stormont, Tullamore, and Brudenell, while the 
Government kept 180 together to the last; between parties 
so animated and so led there can be no doubt on which 
side will be the success. The Government were in high 
spirits at the result, and thought the fatigue well repaid 
by the display of devotion on the part of their friends and 
of factious obstinacy on that of their enemies. After these 
two nights it is impossible not to consider the Tory party as 
having ceased to exist for all the practical and legitimate 
ends of political association — that is, as far as the House of 
Commons is concerned, where after all the battle must be 
fought. There is still a rabble of Opposition, tossed about by 
every wind of folly and passion, and left to the vagaries and 
eccentricities of Wetherell, or Attwood, or Sadler, or the in- 



1831] PKEPAKATIONS FOE THE CORONATION. 163 

temperate zeal of such, weak fanatics as the three Lords above 
mentioned ; but for a grave, deliberative, efficient Opposition 
there seem to be no longer the elements, or they are so scat- 
tered and disunited that they never can come together, and 
the only man who might have collected, and formed, and 
directed them begs leave to be excused. It is a wretched 
state of things and can portend no good. If there had not 
been prognostications of ruin and destruction to the State in 
all times, proceeding from all parties, which the event has 
universally falsified, I should believe that the consummation 
of evil was really at hand ; as it is I cannot feel that cer- 
tainty of destruction that many do, though I think we are 
more seriously menaced than ever we were before, because 
the danger is of a very different description. But there is 
an elasticity in the institutions of this country, which may 
rise up for the purpose of checking these proceedings, and in 
the very uncertainty of what may be produced and engendered 
by such measures there is hope of salvation. 

Yesterday a Council was held at St. James's for the coro- 
nation ; the Princes, Ministers, Archbishop of Canterbury, and 
Bishop of London were present. The King read an address 
to the Lords desiring that his coronation might be short, and 
that all the ceremonies might be dispensed with except those 
in the church. Lord Grey had composed a paper in which he 
had made the King say that these ceremonies were at variance 
with the genius of the age we live in, and suited to another 
period of society ; but the Archbishop objected to these 
expressions, and thought it better to give the injunction with- 
out the comments ; so Lord Grey wrote another and shorter 
paper, but he showed the first to Lord Lansdowne and me, 
and we both told him that we thought the Archbishop was 
right and that the second paper was the best. The Duke of 
Gloucester was very indignant at not having been summoned 
in a more respectful way than by a common circular, and com- 
plained to the Lord President. 1 I told him to throw it all on 

1 [It is customary to summon the Iloyal Dukes to a Council by a letter 
This formality seems to have been overlooked in this instance.] 



164 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIV. 

me. He had been grumbling to the Duke of Sussex before, 
who did not care. Leopold was too much of a king to 
attend, so he came to the levee (but en prince only) and not 
to the Council. Lieven told me it was true that the Grand 
Duke Constantine was dead, and that it was a very good 
thing. 



165 



CHAFFEE XV. 

Preparations for the Coronation — Long Wellesley committed by the 
Chancellor for Contempt — Alderman Thompson and his Constituents — 
Prince Leopold goes to Belgium — Royal Tombs and Remains — The Lieu- 
tenancy of the Tower — The Cholera — The Belgian Fortresses — Secret 
Negotiations of Canning with the Whigs — Transactions before the Close 
of the Liverpool Administration — Duke of Wellington and Peel — The 
Dutch invade Belgium — Defeat of the Belgian Army — The French enter 
Belgium — Lord Grey's Composure — Audience at Windsor — Danger of 
Reform — Ellen Tree — The French in Belgium — Goodwood — The Duke 
of Richmond — The Reform Bill in Difficulties — Duke of Wellington 
calls on Lord Grey — The King declines to be kissed by the Bishops — 
Talleyrand's Conversation — State of Europe and France — Coronation 
Squabbles — The King divides the old Great Seal between Brougham and 
Lyndhurst — Relations of the Duchess of Kent to George IV. and William 
IV. — The Coronation — Irritation of the King — The Cholera — A Dinner 
at St. James's — State of the Reform Bill — Sir Augustus d'Este— Madame 
Junot— State of France — Poland. 

July Ibth. — A Committee of Council sat yesterday at the 
Office about the coronation ; present, the Cabinet, Dukes of 
Gloucester and Sussex, Archbishop and Bishop of London; 
much discussion and nothing done. Brougham raised every 
sort of objection about the services and the dispensing with 
them, and would have it the King could not dispense with 
them; finally, the Attorney- General and Solicitor-General 
were sent for to the House of Lords and desired to reconsider 
the Proclamation. 

July 20th. — I have been laid up with the gout these last 
few days, unable to move, but without violent pain. The 
Committee of Council met again on Friday last, when the 
Proclamation was settled. A Court of Claims is to sit, but to 
be prohibited from receiving any claims except those relating 
to the ceremonies in the Abbey. The Lords went to St. 



166 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

James's and held the Council, at which the King made a 
little speech, to the effect that he would be crowned to satisfy 
the tender consciences of those who thought it necessary, 
but that he thought that it was his duty (as this country, 
in common with every other, was labouring under distress) 
to make it as economical as possible. A difficulty arose 
about the publication of the Proclamation, usually done by 
heralds with certain ceremonies. The first proclamation is 
not the one to be acted on ; the second does not announce 
the coronation, but refers to the first. I asked Brougham 
what was to be done. He said both must be read. Lord 
Grey suggested neither, which was done. 

The other day Long Wellesley carried off his daughter, 
a ward in Chancery, from her guardians, and secreted her. 
The matter was brought before the Chancellor, who sent for 
Wellesley. He came, and refused to give her up ; so Broug- 
ham committed him to the Fleet Prison. The matter was 
brought the next day before the House of Commons, and re- 
ferred to their Committee of Privileges ; and in the mean- 
time Brougham has been making a great splutter about his 
authority and his Court both on the judicial bench and 
from the Woolsack. The lawyers in the House of Commons 
were divided as to Wellesley's right of privilege in such a 
case. ! 

There has been exhibited in the course of the last few 
days one of the most disgraceful scenes (produced by the 
Eeform Bill) ever witnessed. On the question of the dis- 
franchisement of Appleby a certain Alderman Thompson, 
member for the City, who stood deeply pledged to Eeform, 
voted for hearing counsel in defence of the borough, on which 
there was a meeting of his ward, or of certain of his consti- 

1 [Both the Chancellor and Mr. Wellesley wrote to the Speaker, and 
their letters were read to the House before the Committee of Privileges was 
appointed. Meanwhile Mr. Wellesley remained at his house in Dover 
Street in charge of two officers of the Court of Chancery. There is, I 
believe, no doubt that the committal was good, and that Mr. Wellesley's 
privilege as a member of Parliament did not protect him, a contempt of the 
Court having been committed. A similar point has recently been raised in 
the Court of Queen's Bench upon the committal of Mr. Whalley.] 



1831] ALDEKMAN THOMPSON AND HIS CONSTITUENTS. 167 

tuents, to consider his conduct. He was obliged to appear 
before them, and, after receiving* a severe lecture, to confess 
that he had been guilty of inadvertence, to make many sub- 
missive apologies, and promise to vote no more but in obedi- 
ence to the Minister. It is always an agreeable pastime to 
indulge one's virtuous indignation, and wish to have been in 
the place of such an one for the sake of doing what he ought to 
have done but did not do, by which, without any of the risk 
of a very difficult and unpleasant situation, one has all the 
imaginaiw triumph of eloquence, independence, and all kinds 
of virtue ; and so in this instance I feel that I should have 
liked to pour upon these wretches the phials of my wrath 
and contempt. If the alderman had had one spark of spirit 
he would have spurned the terrors of this plebeian inquisition, 
and told them that they had elected him, and that it was 
his intention, as long as he continued their representative, 
to vote as he thought proper, always redeeming the pledges 
he had given at his election 5 that he would not submit to 
be questioned for this or any other vote, and if they were 
not satisfied with his conduct when the Parliament should 
be over they might choose whom they would in his place. 
What makes the case the more absurd is, that this question 
of Appleby is monstrous, and it never ought (by their own 
principle) to have been put in Schedule A at all. There was 
a debate and a division on it last night, and a majority for 
the Ministers of seventy-five in a very full House ; the worst 
division they have yet had. Every small victory in the 
House of Commons is probably equivalent to a great defeat 
in the House of Lords, unless they do what is now talked of 
— make as many Peers as may be necessary to carry the Bill, 
which I doubt their daring to do or the King consenting to 
do. The lapse of time and such difficulties and absurdities 
will probably obstruct the Bill, so as to prevent its passing. 
God knows what we shall have instead. 

Prince Leopold started on Saturday, having put his pen- 
sion into trustees' hands (by the advice of Lambton), to keep 
up Claremont and pay his debts and pensions, and then hand 
over the residue to the Exchequer, the odds being that 



168 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

none of it ever gets there, and that he is back here before 
the debts are paid. It seems that, desirous as he had been 
to go, when the time drew near he got alarmed, and wanted 
to back out, but they brought him (though with difficulty) to 
the point. He has proposed to the Princess Louise, King 
Louis Philippe's daughter. 

Halford has been with me this morning gossiping (which 
he likes) ; he gave me an account of his discovery of the head 
of Charles I. in St. George's Chapel, Windsor, to which he 
was directed by Wood's account in the 'Athense Oxonienses.' 
He says that they also found the coffin of Henry VIII. , but 
that the air had penetrated and the body had been reduced 
to a skeleton. By his side was Jane Seymour's coffin 
untouched, and he has no doubt her body is perfect. The 
late King intended to have it opened, and he says he will 
propose it to this King. By degrees we may visit the 
remains of the whole line of Tudor and Plantagenet too, 
and see if those famous old creatures were like their effigies. 
He says Charles's head was exactly as Yandyke had painted 
him. 

July 26th. — At Oatlands on Saturday, and came back on 
Sunday night. Nobody there but my father, mother, Wal- 
pole, Sneyd, and Alava; very different from what I once 
remember it. There has been a great deal of talk about the 
Duke of Wellington giving Lord Munster tlie Lieutenancy 
of the Tower, the truth of which is as follows : — It is in the 
King's gift, and he sent to the Duke and desired him to name 
somebody. The Duke would have liked to name one of three — 
Fitzroy Somerset, Colin Campbell, or Hardinge. The latter 
would not have been agreeable to Government, and there- 
fore it would have occasioned the King an embarrassment ; 
the second was provided for, and Lord Hill advised the first 
to remain as he is (though I don't see why he could not have 
had both) ; so the Duke thought it would gratify the King if 
he was to name Munster. Munster wrote a very civil letter 
to the Duke, full of thanks and saying that he begged he would 
not think of him if he had anybody else to give it to, and 
that he would take upon himself to explain to the King his 



1831] THE CHOLERA. 169 

not accepting it. The Duke persisted, and so he had it. I 
must say he might have found some one out of the number 
of his old officers to give it to rather than Munster. 

The King of Trance's Speech arrived yesterday, but 
nothing was said in the House of Lords, because Lord Grey 
was at Windsor. It will make a stir — the general tone of it, 
and the demolition of the fortresses which cost us seven 
millions. Not one of the papers made a remark upon it; 
nothing will do for them but Reform. 

Fresh claims have been raised about cholera morbus. 
A man at Port Glasgow insists upon it, without much ap- 
parent reason, that it prevails there ; so we have sent a medical 
man down, in order to quiet people's minds and to set the 
question at rest. Lord Grey, who is credulous, believes the 
Glasgow man's story, and spread the news in his own family, 
who immediately dispersed it over the rest of the town, and 
yesterday nobody could talk of anything else ; not believing 
it very much, and not understanding it at all, for if they did 
they would not be so flippant. Lady Holland wrote to Lord 
Lansdowne to desire he would recommend her the best 
cholera doctor that he had heard of. I have just received a 
letter from Moore, saying he has ordered his publisher to 
send me a copy of ' Lord Edward Fitzgerald,' and that he 
only sends copies to the Duke of Leinster and me, but begs I 
will send him no opinion, for ' opinions fidget him' — 'genus 
irritabile vatum.' 

July 27th. — Yesterday Aberdeen asked Lord Grey some 
questions in a very few words, accompanied as usual with 
a sneer, which is very unbecoming, and of course gave 
Lord Grey the advantage of repelling it with scorn. The 
Duke spoke, and pretty well, but laid some stress more on 
Portugal than upon Belgium, which is what I cannot under- 
stand, but Alava told me that when he came to town yester- 
day he had said to him that, as an Englishman, he had never 
felt so deeply affected for the honour of his country as in 
this transaction. I met him after the debate, and he said 
he thought he had done some good by what he said. The 
question of the Belgian fortresses is not without great diffi- 



170 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

culty, and the strong part of it for Government is that their 
demolition was agreed to by all the Powers interested (except 
Holland), and without the presence of the French Plenipo- 
tentiary at the meeting when it was decided. I am inclined 
to think that the manner in which it was blurted out in the 
King of Prance's Speech, as a clap-trap for him, will have 
made the principal difficulty, though the policy may be very 
questionable. 

July 28th. — On Tuesday night they got through Schedule 
A, but in a very bungling manner, and the events of the 
night, its enemies say, damaged the Bill, not, however, 
that anything can hurt it in the House of Commons, though 
such things may tell in the House of Lords ; but on the 
question of Saltash, which the Opposition did not consider 
as a very strong case, so little that they had not intended to 
divide on it, John Eussell and the rest suddenly gave way, 
and without informing their friends moved that it ought to 
be in Schedule B. On a division all the Ministers voted with 
the Opposition, so the borough was transferred to B. Their 
friends were furious, and not without reason, that they had 
not determined where it ought to be placed, and have trans- 
ferred it themselves instead of leaving them in the dilemma 
they were in when the division arrived. A court and levee 
yesterday. 

Oatlands, July 31st. — The Arbuthnots and Mr. Loch here. 
I rode down after the Opera last night ; walked for an hour 
and a half with Arbuthnot under the shade of one of the great 
trees, talking of various old matters and some new, princi- 
pally about Canning and his disputes and differences with 
the Duke of Wellington. He says that the Duke's principal 
objection to Canning was the knowledge of his having 
negotiated with the Whigs previously to Lord Liverpool's 
illness, which was communicated to the Duke ; he would not 
say by whom. The person who went between them was Sir 
Robert Wilson, deputed by Brougham, and those who after- 
wards joined Canning. Sir Robert spoke to Huskisson, and 
he to Canning. What they said was this : that finding his 
view so liberal, they were ready to support and join him, and 






1831] CANNING'S NEGOTIATION WITH THE WHIGS. 171 

in the event of his becoming Minister (on Lord Liverpool's 
death or resignation) that they would serve under him. Ar- 
buthnot does not know what answer Canning sent to this, nor 
whether he did anything on it, but when on Lord Liverpool's 
illness Canning went to the King at Windsor, he told him that 
if the Tories would not consent to his being named Minister 
6 he was sure of the Whigs,' but this he entreated the King 
not to mention. Immediately after Canning the Duke went 
to the King, and to him the King directly repeated what 
Canning had said. The Duke told the King that he was 
already aware of Canning's intercourse with the Whigs, and 
with that knowledge that he could not consent to his being 
Prime Minister, as he could have no confidence in him. 
Shortly after this, and before the resignation of the Ministers, 
but after the difficulties had begun, Knighton came to 
Arbuthnot, and said he was afraid his Royal Master had done 
a great deal of mischief by repeating to the Duke what 
Canning had said, that he was very anxious to bring the 
Duke and Canning together again, and asked him (Arbuth- 
not) to go with him to Canning and see what could be done. 
Arbuthnot declined, but said if Canning ivished to see him he 
would go. Canning sent for him, and they had a long con- 
versation, in which he expressed his desire to go on with the 
Duke, and it was agreed the Duke should call on him and 
have a conversation and see what could be arranged. The 
Duke called on him, and they talked of a variety of matters, 
but not a word passed about the formation of a new Minis- 
try. Arbuthnot went to the House, and told Canning how 
much he was surprised and disappointed that nothing had 
come of this conversation, to which he made no reply, but 
Arbuthnot found afterwards that between his leaving Can- 
ning and the Duke's going to him Peel had been to him 
and proposed that the Duke should be Prime Minister. This 
so offended Canning, believing that it was a measure of the 
party and done with the Duke's consent, that he resolved 
not to utter a word to the Duke on the subject, and so ended 
the hopes of their agreement. 

It does not appear, however, as if anything could have 



1 72 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

been done, for Canning was bent upon being Prime Minis- 
ter; and I asked Arbuthnot to what the Duke would have 
consented, and he said, ' Not to that,' that after the trans- 
action with the Whigs he could not have felt sufficient confi- 
dence in Canning to agree to his being Prime Minister. 
(If he distrusted Canning he ought to have refused to act 
with him at all, not merely objected to his being Prime 
Minister, but the ground of his objection was shifted.) 
Originally the King could not bear Canning, and he was 
only persuaded by the Duke to take him into the Cabi- 
net. Afterwards he was so offended at the influence he 
acquired there, and particularly with that which he had got 
over the mind of Lord Liverpool, that he one day sent for 
Arbuthnot and desired him to tell Lord Liverpool that he 
could not endure to see Canning make a puppet of him, and 
he would rather he was Prime Minister at once than have 
all the power without the name by governing him (Lord 
Liverpool) as he pleased, and that unless he could shake off 
this influence he was determined not to let him continue at 
the head of the Government, and, moreover, he must find 
some means of getting rid of Canning altogether. This 
Arbuthnot wrote to Lord Liverpool, who wrote an answer 
couched in terms of indignation, saying he by no means 
coveted his situation, that he was sure his colleagues would 
resent any indignity offered to him, and that the King had 
better take care what he was about, and not, by producing 
disunion in the Government, incur the risk of making the 
end of his reign as disastrous as the beginning of it had been 
prosperous. 

Not very long after Canning got into favour, and in 
this way : — Harriet Wilson at the time of her connexion 
with Lord Ponsonby got hold of some of Lady Conying- 
ham's letters to him, and she wrote to Ponsonby, threaten- 
ing, unless he gave her a large sum, to come to England 
and publish everything she could. This produced dismay 
among all the parties, and they wanted to get Ponsonby 
away and to silence the woman. In this dilemma Knighton 
advised the King to have recourse to Canning, who saw 



1831] CANNING AND THE LIVEKPOOL ADMINISTRATION. 173 

the opening to favour, jumped at it, and instantly offered 
to provide for Ponsonby and do anything which could 
relieve the King from trouble. Ponsonby was sent to Buenos 
Ay res forthwith, and the letters were bought up. From 
this time Canning grew in favour, which he took every 
means to improve, and shortly gained complete ascendancy 
over the King. 

Arbuthnot said that Canning and Castlereagh had always 
gone on well together after their reconciliation, but that 
Lord Liverpool's subjection to him arose more from fear than 
affection. Liverpool told Arbuthnot that he earnestly de- 
sired to resign his office, that his health was broken, and he 
was only retained^ by the consideration that his retirement 
might be the means of breaking up a Government which he 
had (through the kindness of his colleagues to him) been 
enabled to hold together ; that Canning worked with a 
twenty-horse power ; that his sensitiveness was such that he 
[Canning] felt every paragraph in a newspaper that reflected 
on him, and that the most trifling causes produced an irrita- 
tion on his mind, which was always vented upon him (Lord 
Liverpool), and that every time the door was opened he 
dreaded the arrival of a packet from Canning. Arbuthnot 
had been in great favour with the King, who talked to him 
and consulted him, but he nearly cut him after the disunion 
consequent on Canning's appointment. Knighton came to 
Arbuthnot and desired him to try and prevail on the Duke to 
consent to Canning's being Prime Minister, which he told 
him was useless, and from that time the King was just civil 
to the Duke and that was all. The Duke had always sus- 
pected that Canning wanted all along to be Prime Minister, 
and that when he sent him to Russia to congratulate Nicho- 
las it was to get him out of the way, and he was the more 
convinced because Canning proposed to him to go on to 
Moscow for the coronation, which he positively refused, 
having promised his friends to be back in April, which he ac- 
cordingly was. Canning never had a great opinion of Huskis- 
Bon, nor really liked him, though he thought him very useful 
from being conversant with the subjects on which he was 



174 REIGN OE- WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

himself most ignorant — trade and finance ; but lie did not 
contemplate his being in the Cabinet, and had no confidence 
in his judgment or his discretion ; and this tallies with what 
Lad j Canning told me, though certainly he did not do Huskis- 
son justice in any way, which Arbuthnot admitted. Knighton 
behaved exceedingly well during the King's illness, and by 
the vigilant watch he kept over the property of various kinds 
prevented the pillage which Lady Conyngham would other- 
wise have made. She knew everything, but did not much 
trouble herself about affairs, being chiefly intent upon amas - 
sing money and collecting jewels. 

He talked a great deal of Peel, of the difficulty of going on 
with him, of his coldness, incommunicativeness ; that at the 
time of the opening the Liverpool Eailroad he had invited the 
Duke, Aberdeen, and some more to meet at Drayton to consider 
of strengthening themselves ; that they had left the place just 
as they had gone to it, nothing settled and nothing elicited 
from Peel ; that on the late occasion of the wine duties they 
had gone to Peel and asked him whether they should fight 
out and divide on it ; that he had referred them to Goul- 
burn, who had decided in the affirmative, on which he had 
agreed to their friends being mustered, but that he took 
offence at something that was said in debate, and marched 
off sans mot dire ; that somebody was sent after him to repre- 
sent the bad effect of his departure, and entreat him to 
return, but he was gone to bed. This is by no means the 
first time Arbuthnot has spoken to me about Peel in this 
strain and with such feelings. How are the Duke and he 
to make a Government again, especially after what Lynd- 
hurst said of the Duke ? Necessity may bring them together, 
but though common interest and common danger may unite 
them, there the seeds of disunion always must be. I have 
scribbled down all I can recollect of a very loose conversation, 
and perhaps something else may occur to me by-and-by. 

In the meantime to return to the events of the present 
day. Althorp raised a terrible storm on Friday by proposing 
that the House should sit on Saturday. They spent six 
hours debating the question, which might have been occu- 



1831] LONG WELLESLEY AND BROUGHAM. 175 

pied in the business ; so that, though they did not sit yester- 
day, they gained nothing and made bad blood. Yesterday 
morning Murray made a conciliatory speech, which Burdett 
complimented, and all went on harmoniously. John Russell 
is ill, nearly done up with fatigue and exertion and the bad 
atmosphere he breathes for several hours every night. 

Long Wellesley has given up his daughter and has been 
discharged from arrest. I met the Solicitor- General yesterday, 
who told me this, and said that Brougham had been in the 
midst of his blustering terribly nervous about it. This was 
clear, for both he and Wellesley were waiting for the report 
of the Committee of the House of Commons, though Broug- 
ham affected to hold it cheap, and talked very big of what he 
should do and should have done had it been unfavourable 
to his authority. The fact is that Long Wellesley was 
contumacious, but after a short confinement he knocked under 
and yielded to the Chancellor on all points, and was released 
from durance. 

We had a meeting on the Coronation business yesterday 
morning, and took into consideration the estimates. That 
from the Chamberlain's Office was 70,000?. and upwards, 
which was referred to a sub-committee to dissect and repcrt 
upon. 

August 6th. — Yesterday morning arrived the news of 
Casimir Perier's resignation in consequence of the division 
in the Chamber of Deputies on the election of President. 
He had very unnecessarily committed himself by declaring he 
would resign if Lafitte was elected, and though the other 
candidate (M. Girod de PAin) was chosen, as it was, only by 
a majority of five, he considered this tantamount to a defeat, 
and accordingly went out of office. 1 It was supposed, but not 
quite certain, that Mole would be First Minister, but without 
much chance of being able to keep that post. 

At the same time comes intelligence that the King of 
Holland has marched into Belgium at three points with 

[M. Casimir Perier did not retire from office on this occasion, though 
he had momentarily re-signcd it. He remained in power till his death 
which took place from cholera in the following year.] 



176 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

three corps under the Prince of Orange, Prince Frederick, 
and the Prince of Nassau. This, however, was premature, 
for it turns out that the Prince of Orange in a proclamation 
to his army declares that the armistice was to end last night 
at half-past nine, and that he marches ' to secure equitable 
terms of separation,' not therefore for the purpose of recon- 
quest. I saw Lord Grey in the morning in a state of great 
consternation, the more particularly as he told me a Dutch 
Plenipotentiary had arrived the day before with full powers 
to treat, and that he had not in his intercourse with him 
and with Palmerston uttered one word of the King of Hol- 
land's intentions. In the evening I had a long conversa- 
tion with Matuscewitz. He says that it is impossible to 
foresee the end of all this, but that the most probable event 
is a general war. Coming at the moment of a change in the 
French Ministry, nobody can guess what the French may do, 
and the Conferences are useless, because any resolution they 
may make may probably be totally inapplicable to the state 
of things produced by events hastening on elsewhere. The 
King of Holland has all along very justly complained of the 
proceedings of the Allies towards him, which they justify by 
necessity (' the tyrant's plea ') and to which he has been 
obliged sulkily to submit, though always protesting and 
never acquiescing, except in an armistice to which he agreed. 
Meantime the Allies went on negotiating, but without 
making much progress, and the Dutchman borrowed money 
and put his army on a respectable footing. It is remarkable 
that as long as he held out that he sought the reunion he 
could get no money at all, but no sooner did he renounce the 
idea of reunion, and propose to make war for objects more 
immediately national to the Dutch, than he got a loan filled 
(in two days) to the amount of about a million sterling. 
When the proposition was made to Leopold, though no 
arrangement was actually agreed upon, there was a general 
understanding that the King of Holland would consent to the 
separation of the two States, and that the Belgians should 
resign their claims to Limbourg and Luxembourg, and after 
Lord Ponsonby's letter which made so much noise, Falck's 



1831] HOLLAND AND BELGIUM. 177 

protestation, and Ponsonby's recall this seemed to be clearly 
established. When Leopold received the offer of the Crown, 
he only consented to take it upon an understanding that the 
Belgians would agree to the terms prescribed by the Allies ; 
but before the whole thing was settled he took fright and 
began to repent, and it was with some difficulty he was at last 
persuaded to go by the Belgian deputies with assurances that 
these terms would be complied with. Go, however, he did, 
and that unaccompanied by any person of weight or con- 
sequence from this country. Matuscewitz told me that he 
went on his knees to Palmerston to send somebody with 
him who would prevent his getting into scrapes, and that 
Talleyrand and Falck, by far the best heads among them, 
had both predicted that Leopold would speedily commit 
some folly the consequences of which might be irreparable. 1 
Our Government, however, paid no attention to these re- 
monstrances, and he was suffered to go alone. Accordingly 
he had no sooner arrived than, intoxicated with the applause 
he received, he forgot all that had occurred here and all 
the resolutions of the Allies, and flourished off speeches in 
direct contradiction to them, and announced his determina- 
tion to comprehend the disputed provinces in his new 
kingdom. It is no wonder that this excited the indignation 
of the King of Holland, but it is unfortunate that he could 

1 [This account of Leopold's arrival in Belgium is hardly fair, and forms 
an amusing contrast to Baron Stockmar's narrative of the same occurrence in 
his ' Memoirs,' p. 180. Unquestionably Leopold showed far more foresight^ 
judgment, and resolution than Mr. Greville gave him credit for. lie was 
not accompanied by i any person of weight or consequence ' from this 
country, because that would have given him the air of a puppet and a 
British nominee. But Stockmar was with him. The King entered 
Brussels on the 21st of July, and was well received. On the 4th of August 
the Dutch broke the truce and invaded Belgium. It was impossible to 
provide against so sudden a movement, and the Army of the Scheldt was 
beaten at Louvain on the 12th of August. The King then claimed the 
intervention of France and England in defence of the neutrality and inde- 
pendence of Belgium, which had been guaranteed to him by the treaty of 
the eighteen articles under which he had accepted the Crown. But the 
passage in the text is curious, because it shows how little confidence was 
felt at that time in a prince who turned out to be one of the ablest rulers 
and politicians of his time.] 

VOL. II. N 



178 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

not be patient a little longer. Notwithstanding Ms march, 
however, his Plenipotentiary here has full power to treat of 
all the disputed points, and is authorised to put a stop to 
hostilities at any moment when he can see the prospect of 
satisfaction ; it is, however, believed here (though at present 
not on any sufficient grounds) that Prussia secretly supports 
the King of Holland. The danger is that Prance may 
without any further communication with her Allies consider 
the aggression of the Dutch as a justification of a corre- 
sponding movement on her part, and should this happen the 
Prussians would no longer deem themselves bound by the 
common obligations which united all the conferring and 
mediating Powers, and a general war would infallibly ensue. 
ISTor is it unlikely that the French Ministry, beset as they are 
with difficulties, and holding their offices de die in diem, may 
think a war the best expedient for occupying the nation and 
bringing all the restless spirits and unquiet humours into one 
focus. I have long been of opinion that such mighty arma- 
ments and such a nervous state of things cannot end without 
a good deal of blood-letting. [The Prussians did not support 
the Dutch, the French did march, and war did not ensue. 
— August 28th.'] 

At night.- — Lord Grey was attacked by Aberdeen to-night 
on his foreign policy, and particularly about Portugal, and 
he is said to have made a splendid speech. Sir Henry 
Seton arrived from Liverpool to announce what is going on, 
and he is bent on fighting at present. Abercromby, who is 
come likewise, reports that he has 50,000 or 60,000 men. 

August 9th. — On Saturday morning we were saluted 
with intelligence that on the French King's hearing of the 
Dutch invasion he ordered Marshal Gerard, with 50,000 
men, to march into Belgium ; and great was the alarm 
here : the funds fell and everybody was prepared for im- 
mediate war. In the afternoon I called upon Lord Grey 
at East Sheen (in my way to Monk's Grove, where I was 
going) to say something to him about the coronation, and 
found him with a more cheerful countenance than I expected. 
He did not appear alarmed at what the French had done, 



1831] THE QUEEN'S CROWN. 179 

and very well satisfied with the manner of their doing it, 
marching only in virtue of their guarantee and proclaiming 
their own neutrality and the Belgian independence, and the 
King had previously received the Belgian Minister. I told 
him I thought Leopold's folly had been the cause of it, and 
that his speeches about Luxembourg had given the Dutch 
King a pretext. He said, not at all, and that the King of 
Holland would have done this under any circumstances, 
which I took leave to doubt, though I did not think it 
necessary to say so. 1 

On Sunday, overtaken by the most dreadful storm I ever 
saw — flashes of lightning, crashes of thunder, and the rain 
descending like a waterspout — I rode to Windsor, to settle 
with the Queen what sort of crown she would have to be 
crowned in. I was ushered into the King's presence, who 
was sitting at a red table in the sitting-room of George IY., 
looking over the flower garden. A picture of Adolphus Fitz- 
clarence was behind him (a full-length), and one of the 
parson, Rev. Augustus Fitzclarence, in a Greek dress, 
opposite. He sent for the Queen, who came with the 
Landgravine and one of the King's daughters, Lady Augusta 
Erskine, the widow of Lord Cassilis's son. She looked at 
the drawings, meant apparently to be civil to me in her un- 
gracious way, and said she would have none of our crowns, 
that she did not like to wear a hired crown, and asked me if 
I thought it was right that she should. I said, c Madam, 
I can only say that the late King wore one at his coro- 
nation.' However she said, ' I do not like it, and I have 
got jewels enough, so I will have them made up myself.' The 
King said to me, c Very well ; then you will have to pay for 
the setting.' ' Oh, no,' she said ; c I shall pay for it all 
myself.' The King looked well, but seemed infirm. I talked 
to Taylor afterwards, who said he had very little doubt this 

1 [Lord Grey's composure was mainly due to the entire confidence he 
felt in the honour of the Due de Broglie, then French Minister of Foreign 
Affairs, who had given positive assurances to the British Cabinet that the 
intervention of France would be confined to the immediate object in view. 
This confidence was equally honourable to both statesmen, and these as- 
surances were faithfully fulfilled.] 

x 2 



180 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

storm in Belgium would blow over, and agreed that Leopold's 
folly had been in great measure the cause of it. There have 
been discussions in both Houses, which have in some measure 
quieted people's apprehensions. To-day that ass Lord 
Londonderry (who has never yet had his windows mended 
from the time they were broken by the mob at the Reform 
illumination) brings on a motion about Belgium. 

August 11th. — Nothing new these last two days. Lon- 
donderry's motion produced an angry debate, but no division. 
Brougham is said to have. been very good. The Government 
wanted to divide, but the Opposition know that it is not 
their interest to provoke a trial of strength. The Ministers, 
if beaten, would not go out, and they are anxious to see what 
their opponents' strength is. At Court yesterday, when 
Van de Weyer, the new Belgian Minister, made his appear- 
ance. I said to Esterhazy, c You will blow this business over, 
sha'n't you ? ' He said, e Yes, I think we shall this time.'' 

Nothing remarkable in the House of Commons but Lord 
John Russell's declaration that ' this Bill would not be final 
if it was not found to work as well as the people desired,' 
which is sufficiently impudent considering that hitherto they 
have always pretended that it was to be final, and that it 
was made so comprehensive only that it might be so ; this 
has been one of their grand arguments, and now we are 
never to sit down and rest, but go on changing till we get a 
good fib, and that for a country which will have been made 
so fidgety that it won't stand still to be measured. Har- 
dinge, whom I found at dinner at the Athenseum yesterday, 
told me he was convinced that a revolution in this country 
was inevitable; and such is the opinion of others who 
support this Bill, not because they think concession will 
avert it, but will let it come more gradually and with less 
violence. I have always been convinced that the country 
was in no danger of revolution, and still believe that if one 
does come it will be from the passing of this Bill, which will 
introduce the principle of change and whet the appetites of 
those who never will be satisfied with any existing order of 
things ; or if it follows on the rejection of this Bill, which 



1831] ELLEN TEEE. 181 

I doubt, it will be owing to the concentration of all the 
forces that are opposed to our present institutions, and the 
divisions, jealousies, rivalships, and consequent weakness of 
all those who ought to defend them. God only knows how 
it will all end. There has been but one man for many years 
past able to arrest this torrent, and that was Canning ; and 
him the Tories — idiots that they were, and never discovering 
that he was their best friend — hunted to death with their 
besotted and ignorant hostility. 

I went to the play last night at a very shabby little house 
called the City Theatre — a long way beyond the Post Office 
— to see Ellen Tree act in a translation of 'Une Faute,' 
one of the best pieces of acting I ever saw. This girl 
will turn out very good if she remains on the stage. She 
has never been brought forward at Covent Garden, and I 
heard last night the reason why. Charles Kemble took a 
great fancy for her (she is excessively pretty), and made her 
splendid offers of putting her into the best parts, and ad- 
vancing her in all ways, if she would be propitious to his 
flame, but which she indignantly refused ; so he revenged 
himself (to his own detriment) by keeping her back and 
promoting inferior actresses instead. If ever she acquires 
fame, which is very probable, for she has as much nature, and 
feeling, and passion as I ever saw, this will be a curious 
anecdote. [She married Charles Kean, lost her good looks, 
and became a tiresome, second-rate actress.] 

August 12th. — Yesterday a Committee of Council met to 
settle the order of the coronation and submit the estimates, 
which we have brought under 30,000£. instead of 240,000^., 
which they were last time. 

The question now is whether our Ministry shall go along 
with France, or whether France shall be pulled up ; and it 
is brought to this point by Leopold's having sent to the 
French to thank them for their aid, but to say that he can 
do without them, and to beg they will retire, which they 
have refused to do. It was known yesterday that they are 
at Mons, and strongly suspected they will not so easily be 
got out of it ; but the French Government will not venture 



182 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

to quarrel with us if we take a peremptory tone. It is not, 
however, clear that the French Government can control the 
French army ; and I have heard it said that if they had not 
ordered the troops to march, the troops would have marched 
without orders. L. is all for curbing France; so a very 
short time must bring matters to a crisis, and it will be seen 
if the Government has authority to check the war party 
there. In the meantime the French have taken the Portu- 
guese ships without any intention of giving them back ; and 
this our Ministers know, and do not remonstrate. J. asked 
Li if it was true, and he said, ' Oh, yes,' for that having been 
compelled to force the Tagus, they were placed in a state of 
war, and the ships became lawful prizes. If it was not for 
Reform I doubt that this Government could stand a moment, 
but that will bring them up. In the country it is too clear 
that there are no symptoms of a reaction, and if a state of 
indifference can be produced it is all that can be hoped and 
more than should be expected. I do not think the Govern- 
ment by any means responsible for the embroiled state of 
Europe, but they certainly appear to have no fixed plan or 
enlightened view of foreign policy, and if they have not 
been to blame hitherto (which in acting with all the Allies, 
and endeavouring to keep things quiet, they have not been), 
they are evidently in great danger of floundering now. 

Goodwood, August 20th. — Here I have been a week to- 
day for the races, and here I should not be now — for every- 
body else is gone —if it were not for the gout, which has laid 
me fast by the foot, owing to a blow. While on these racing 
expeditions I never know anything of politics, and, though I 
just read the newspapers, have no anecdotes to record of 
Reform or foreign affairs. I never come here without fresh 
admiration of the beauty and delightfulness of the place, 
combining everything that is enjoyable in life — large and 
comfortable house, spacious and beautiful park, extensive 
views, dry soil, sea air, woods, and rides over downs, and all 
the facilities of occupation and amusement. The Duke, who 
has so strangely become a Cabinet Minister in a Whig 
Government, and who is a very good sort of man and my 



1831] EEFOEM BILL IN DIFFICULTIES. 183 

excellent friend, appears here to advantage, exercising a 

magnificent hospitality, and as a sportsman, a farmer, a 

magistrate, and good, simple, unaffected country gentleman, 

with great personal influence. This is what he is fit for, to 

be, 

"With safer pride content, 

The wisest justice on the banks of Trent, 

and not to assist in settling Europe and making new consti- 
tutions. 

I find on arriving in town that there is nothing new, but 
the Bill, which drags its slow length along, is in a bad way ; 
not that it will not pass the Commons, but now every- 
body attacks it, and the press is all against what remains of 
it. Lord Chandos's motion and the defeat of Government 
by so large a majority have given them a great blow. Still 
they go doggedly on, and are determined to cram it down 
anyhow, quite indifferent how it is to work and quite igno- 
rant. As to foreign affairs, the Ministers trust to blunder 
through them, hoping, like Sir Abel Handy in the play, that 
the fire ' will go out of itself.' Sefton has just been here, who 
talks blusteringly of the Peers that are to be made, no matter 
at what cost of character to the House of Lords, anything 
rather than be beaten ; but I am not sure that he knows any- 
thing. In such matters as these he is (however sharp) no better 
than a fool — no knowledge, no information, no reflection or 
combination ; prejudices, partialities^ and sneers are what his 
political wisdom consists of; but he is Lord Grey's dme damnee. 
Stoke, August 28th. — My gout is still hanging on me. 
Very strange disorder, affecting different people so differently; 
with me very little pain, much swelling, heat, and inconveni- 
ence, more like bruised muscles and tendons and inflamed 
joints; it disables me, but never prevents my sleeping at night. 
Henry de Eos called on me yesterday ; nothing new, and he 
knows everything from L., who sits there picking up politics 
and gossip, to make money by the one and derive amusement 
from the other. L. is odd enough, and very malin with what 
he knows. He is against Reform, but not against the Govern- 
ment ; for the Duke of Wellington and not for the Opposition 



184 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

— in short, just as interest, fancy, caprice, and particular parti- 
alities sway him. It was he who told me the fact of the French 
having carried away the Portuguese ships, and he said that I 
might tell the Duke that he might make what use he pleased 
of it; but soon after, wishing if it did come out that it should 
fall harmless, he bethought him of the following expedient : — 
Seeing that Yalletort (who is a good-natured blockhead) is 
always spluttering in the House of Commons, he thought in 
his hands it would do no harm, so he told him the fact with 
some flattering observations about his activity and energy 
in the House, which Valley swallowed and with many thanks 
proceeded to put questions to Palmerston, which sure 
enough were so confused and unintelligible that nobody 
understood him, and the matter fell very flat. I don't see 
that Government is saved by this ruse, if the case against 
them is a good one ; but it is curious as indicative of the 
artifice of the person, and of his odd sort of political disposi- 
tion. As I don't write history I omit to note such facts as 
are recorded in the newspapers, and merely mention the odd 
things I pick up, which are not generally known, and which 
may hereafter throw some light on those which are. 

The Belgian business is subsiding into quiet again. The 
Dutch have gained some credit, and the Prince of Orange 
has (what was of importance to him) removed the load of 
odium under which he had been labouring in Holland, and 
acquired great popularity. Leopold has cut a ridiculous 
figure enough ; not exhibiting any want of personal courage, 
but after all the flourishes at the time of his accession 
finding himself at the head of a nation of blustering cowards 
who would do nothing but run away. The arrival of the 
French army soon put an end to hostilities, and now the 
greater part of it has been recalled ; but Leopold has desired 
that 10,000 men may be left for his protection, whether 
against the Dutch or against the Belgians does not appear. 
This excites considerable jealousies here, for as yet it is not 
known why he asked for such aid, nor on what terms it is to 
be granted. 

L. told me an odd thing connected with these troops. 



1831] TALLEYRAND'S CONVERSATION. 185 

Easthope received a commission from a secretary of Soult to 
sell largely in onr funds, coupled with an assurance that the 
troops would not retire. I don't know the fate of the com- 
mission. 

There are various reports of dissensions in the Cabinet, 
which are not true. The Duke of Wellington was sent for by 
Lord Grey the other day, to give his opinion about the demo- 
lition of the Belgian fortresses; so the ex-Prime Minister 
went to visit his successor in the apartment which was so 
lately his own. No man would mind such a thing less than 
the Duke ; he is sensitive, but has no nonsense about him. 
He is very well and, however disgusted with the state of 
everything at home and abroad (which after all is greatly 
imputable to himself), in high spirits. 

The King did a droll thing the other day. The cere- 
monial of the coronation was taken down to him for appro- 
val. The homage is first done by the spiritual Peers, with 
the Archbishop at their head. The first of each class (the 
Archbishop for the spiritual) says the words, and then they 
all kiss his cheek in succession. He said he would not be 
kissed by the bishops, and ordered that part to be struck 
out. As I expected, the prelates would not stand it; the 
Archbishop remonstrated, the King knocked under, and so 
he must undergo the salute of the spiritual as well as of the 
temporal Lords. 

August 30th. — Left Stoke yesterday morning; a large 
party — Talleyrand, De Eos, Fitzroy Somersets, Motteux, John 
Eussell, Alava, Byng. In the evening Talleyrand discoursed, 
but I did not hear much of him. I was gouty and could not 
stand, and all the places near him were taken. I have 
never heard him narrate comfortably, and he is difficult to 
understand. He talked of Franklin. I asked him if he was 
remarkable in conversation; he said he was from his great 
simplicity and the evident strength of his mind. He spoke of 
the coronation of the Emperor Alexander. Somebody wrote 
him a letter at the time from Moscow with this expression : 
* L'Empereur marchait, precede des assassins de son grand- 
pere, entoure de ceux de son pere, et suivi par les siens.' 



186 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

He said of the Count de Saint-Germain (whom he never saw) 
that there is an account of him in Craufurd's book ; nobody 
knew whence he came nor whither he went; he appeared 
at Paris suddenly, and disappeared in the same way, lived in 
an hotel garni, had always plenty of money, and paid for every- 
thing regularly ; he talked of events and persons connected 
with history, both ancient and modern, with entire familiarity 
and a correctness which never was at fault, and always of the 
people as if he bad lived with them and known them ; as 
Talleyrand exemplified it, he would say, 'Un jour que je dinais 
chez Cesar.' l He was supposed to be the Wandering Jew, a 
story which has always appeared to me a very sublime fiction, 
telling of 

That settled ceaseless gloom 

The fabled Hebrew wanderer bore, 

Which will not look beyond the tomb, 
Which cannot hope for rest before. 

Then he related Mallet's conspiracy and the strange way in 
which he heard it. Early in the morning his tailor came to 
his house and insisted on seeing him. He was in bed, but on his 
valet de chambre's telling him how pressing the tailor was he 
ordered him to be let in. The man said, c Have you not heard 
the news ? There is a revolution in Paris.' It had come to 
the tailor's knowledge by Mallet's going to him the very first 
thing to order a new uniform ! Talleyrand said the conspira- 
tors ought to have put to death Cambaceres and the King of 

1 [This mysterious adventurer died in the arms of Prince Charles of 
Hesse, in 1784 ,• and some account of him is to be found in the ' Memoirs ' of 
that personage, quoted in the ' Edinburgh Keview,' vol. cxxiii. p. 521. The 
Count de Saint-Germain was a man of science, especially versed in chemistry 
botany, and metallurgy. He is supposed to have derived his money from 
an invention in the art of dyeing. According to his own account of himself 
he was a son of Prince Ragozky of Transylvania and his first wife, a 
Tekely, and he was Protestant and educated by the last of the Medicis. 
He was supposed to be ninety-two or ninety-three when he died, His 
knowledge of the arcana of science and his mysterious manner of life had 
given him something of the reputation of a wizard and a conjuror, but he 
was an honourable and benevolent man, not to be confounded with such 
charlatans as Mesmer and Cagliostro.] 



1831] STATE OF EUKOPE AND FRANCE. 187 

Rome. I asked him if they had done so whether he thought 
it possible the thing might have succeeded. He said, c C'est 
possible. 5 To my question whether the Emperor would not 
have blown away the whole conspiracy in a moment he re- 
plied, ' Ce n'est pas sur, c'est possible que cela aurait reussi.' 

He afterwards talked of Madame de Stael and Monti. 
They met at Madame de Marescalchi's villa near Bologna, and 
were profuse of compliments and admiration for each other. 
Each brought a copy of their respective works beautifully 
bound to present to the other. After a day passed in an inter- 
change of literary flatteries, and the most ardent expressions 
of delight, they separated, but each forgot to carry away the 
present of the other, and the books remain in Madame de 
Marescalchi's library to this day. 

August 31st. — Dined at Osterley yesterday ; Lady Sand- 
wich, Esterhazy and the Bathursts, Brooke Greville and 
George Yilliers. Esterhazy told me he had no doubt that there 
would be a war, that General Baudron was arrived from 
Brussels, and Leopold had sent word by him that the French 
troops were absolutely necessary to his safety, to protect 
him from the turbulence of his own subjects. He considered 
that the Polish business was over, at which he greatly re- 
joiced. He said that nobody was prepared for war, and the 
great object was to gain time, but a few weeks must now 
bring matters to a crisis ; the only difficulty appears to be what 
to go to war about, and who the belligerents should be, for at 
the eleventh hour, and with the probability of a general war, 
it is a toss-up whether we and the French are to be the closest 
allies or the deadliest enemies. He told me that Casimir 
Perier would probably be unable to keep his ground, that the 
modified law about the House of Peers did not give satisfac- 
tion. If he is beaten on this he goes out, and if he does, 
with him will probably vanish all hopes of peace. It is pretty 
evident that Prance is rapidly advancing to a republic. Her 
institutions have long been republican, and, though very 
compatible with a despotic empire, incompatible with a con- 
stitutional and limited monarchy. This Buonaparte knew. 

Another Coronation Committee yesterday, and, I amhappy 



188 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

to say, the last, for this business is the greatest of all bores. 
There is a furious squabble between the Grand Chamberlain 
and the Earl Marshal (who is absent and has squabbled by 
deputy) about the box of the former in Westminster Abbey. 
At the last coronation King George IY. gave Lord Gwydir 
his box in addition to his own, and now Lord Cholmondeley 
claims a similar box. 1 This is resisted. The present King 
disposes of his own box (and will probably fill it with every 
sort of canaille) ; the Lords won't interfere, and the Grand 
Chamberlain protests, and says he has been shamefully used, 
and there the matter stands. The Grand Chamberlain is in 
the wrong. 

September ord. — On Wednesday a Council was held. Very 
few of the Ministers stay for the Councils ; small blame to 
them, as the Irish say, for we are kept about three times as 
long by this regular, punctual King as by the capricious, irre- 
gular Monarch who last ruled over us. This King is a queer 
fellow. Our Council was principally for a new Great Seal and 
to deface the old Seal. The Chancellor claims the old one as 
his perquisite. I had forgotten the hammer, so the King said, 
6 My Lord, the best thing I can do is to give you the Seal, and 
tell you to take it and do what you please with it.' The 
Chancellor said, ' Sir, I believe there is some doubt whether 
Lord Lyndhurst ought not to have half of it, as he was Chan- 
cellor at the time of your Majesty's accession.' ' Well,' said 
the King, ' then I will judge between you like Solomon ; here 
(turning the Seal round and round), now do you cry heads or 
tails ? ' We all laughed, and the Chancellor said, ' Sir, I take 
the bottom part.' The King opened the two compartments of 
the Seal and said, ' Now, then, I employ you as ministers of 
taste. You will send for Bridge, my silversmith, and desire 
him to convert the two halves each into a salver, with my arms 
on one side and yours on the other, and Lord Lyndhurst's the 
same, and you will take one and give him the other, and 
both keep them as presents from me.' The Duchess of Kent 

1 [Lord Gwydir and Lord Cholmondeley filled the office of Lord High 
Chamberlain for alternative lives as the representatives of the joint claimants 
f the office.] 



1831] ANECDOTES OE GEORGE IV. 189 

will not attend the coronation, and there is a report that the 
King is unwilling to make all the Peers that are required ; 
this is the current talk of the day. 

September 5th. — At Gorhanibury since Saturday; the 
Harrowbys, Bathursts, Frankland Lewes's, Lady Jersey, 
Mahon, Lushington, Wortleys ; rather agreeable and lively ; 
all anti-Reformers, so no quarrelling about that, though 
Lord Harrowby is ready to squabble with anybody either 
way, but furiously against the Bill. 

September 8th. — Dined with the Duke of Wellington 
yesterday ; thirty-one people, very handsome, and the Styrian 
Minstrels playing and singing all dinner time, a thing I 
never saw before. I sat next to Esterhazy and talked to him 
(a very little) about Belgian affairs. He said Talleyrand 
had given positive assurances that the French troops should 
be withdrawn whenever the Dutch retired, that the other 
Powers were aware of Perier's difficulties, and were ready to 
concede much to keep him in power, but that if he had not 
sufficient influence to repress the violent war faction there 
was.no use in endeavouring to support him. Our Govern- 
ment had behaved very well and had been very strong in 
their remonstrances. 

After dinner I had much talk with the Duke, who told me 
a good deal about the late King and the Duchess of Kent ; 
talked of his extravagance and love of spending, provided 
that it was not his own money that he spent ; he told an old 
story he had heard of Mrs. Fitzherbert's being obliged to 
borrow money for his post-horses to take him to Newmarket, 
that not a guinea was forthcoming to make stakes for some 
match, and when on George Leigh's l entreaty he allowed 
some box to be searched that 3,000Z. was found in it. He 
always had money. When he died they found 10,000Z. in 
his boxes, and money scattered about everywhere, a great deal 
of gold. There were about 500 pocket-books, of different 
dates, and in every one money — guineas, one pound notes, one, 
two, or three in each. There never was anything like the 

1 [Colonel George Leigh, who managed his race-horses ; he was married 
to Lord Byron's half-sister.] 



190 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

quantity of trinkets and trash that they found. He had 
never given away or parted with anything. There was a 
prodigious quantity of hair — women's hair — of all colours and 
lengths, some locks with the powder and pomatum stiil 
sticking to them, heaps of women's gloves, gages d'amour 
which he had got at balls, and with the perspiration still 
marked on the fingers, notes and letters in abundance, but 
not much that was of any political consequence, and the 
who]e was destroyed. Of his will he said that it was made in 
1823 by Lord Eldon, very well drawn, that he desired his execu- 
tors might take all he had to pay his debts and such legacies 
as he might bequeath in any codicils he should make. He 
made no codicils and left no debts, so the King got all as 
heir-at-law. Knighton had managed his affairs very well, 
and got him out of debt. A good deal of money was 
disbursed in charity, a good deal through the medium of two 
or three old women. The Duke, talking of his love of ordering 
and expense, said that when he was to ride at the last coro- 
nation the King said, ' You must have a very fine saddle.' 
' What sort of saddle does your Majesty wish me to have? ' 
c Send Cuffe to me.' Accordingly Cuffe went to him, and the 
Duke had to pay some hundreds for his saddle. (While I 
am writing the King and Queen with their cortege a,re passing 
down to Westminster Abbey to the coronation, a grand 
procession, a fine day, an immense crowd, and great acclam- 
ations.) 

We then talked of the Duchess of Kent, and I asked 
him why she set herself in such opposition to the Court. He 
said that Sir John Conroy was her adviser, that he was sure 
of it. What he then told me throws some light upon her 
ill-humour and displays her wrong-headedness. In the first 
place the late King disliked her ; the Duke of Cumberland 
too. was her enemy, and George IV., who was as great a 
despot as ever lived, was always talking of taking her child 
from her, which he inevitably would have done bat for the 
Duke, who, wishing to prevent quarrels, did all in his power 
to deter the King, not by opposing him when he talked of 
it, which he often did, but by putting the thing off as well 



1831] THE DUCHESS OF KENT. 191 

as he could. However, when the Duchess of Cumber- 
land came over, and there was a question how the Koyal 
Family would receive her, he thought he might reconcile 
the Cumberlands to the Duchess of Kent by engaging her 
to be civil to the Duchess of Cumberland, so he desired 
Leopold to advise his sister (who was in the country) from 
him very strongly to write to the Duchess of Cumberland 
and express her regret at being absent on her arrival, and so 
prevented from calling on her. The Duchess sent Leopold 
back to the Duke to ask why he gave her this advice ? 
The Duke replied that he should not say why, that he 
knew more of what was going on than she possibly could, 
that he gave her this advice for her own benefit, and again 
repeated that she had better act on it. The Duchess said 
she was ready to give him credit for the goodness of his 
counsel, though he would not say what his reasons were, and 
she did as he suggested. This succeeded, and the Duke of 
Cumberland ceased to blow the coals. Matters went on 
quietly till the King died. As soon as he was dead the 
Duchess of Kent wrote to the Duke, and desired that she 
might be treated as a Dowager Princess of Wales, with a 
suitable income for herself and her daughter, who she also 
desired might be treated as Heiress Apparent, and that she 
should have the sole control over the allowance to be made 
for both. The Duke replied that her proposition was alto- 
gether inadmissible, and that he could not possibly think of 
proposing anything for her till the matters regarding the 
King's Civil List were settled, but that she might rely 
upon it that no measure which affected her in any way 
should be considered without being imparted to her and the 
fullest information given her. At this it appears she took 
great offence, for she did not speak to him for a long time after. 
When the Eegency Bill was framed the Duke desired the 
King's leave to wait upon the Duchess of Kent and show it to 
her, to which his Majesty assented, and accordingly he wrote 
to her to say he would call upon her the next day with the 
draft of the Bill. She was at Claremont, and sent word that 
she was out of town, but desired he would send it to her in 



102 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

the country. He said she ought to have sent Sir John Con- 
roy to him, or have desired him to go to her at Claremont, 
which he would have done, hut he wrote her word that he 
could not explain by letter so fully what he had to say as he 
could have done in a personal interview, but he would do so 
as well as he could. In the meantime, Lord LyndhursT; 
brought on the measure in the House of Lords, and she sent 
Conroy up to hear him. He returned to Claremont just 
after the Duchess had received the Duke's letter. Since that 
he has dined with her. 

[I must say the King is punctual ; the cannon are now 
firing to announce his arrival at the Abbey, and my clock is 
at the same moment striking eleven ; at eleven it was an- 
nounced that he would be there.] 

His Majesty, I hear, was in great ill-humour at the levee 
yesterday ; contrary to his usual custom he sent for nobody, 
and gave no audiences, but at ten minutes after one flounced 
into the levee room ; not one Minister was come but the Duke 
of Richmond. Talleyrand and Esterhazy alone of the Corps 
Diplomatique were in the next room. He attacked the officer 
of the Guards for not having his cap on his head, and sent 
for the officer on guard, who was not arrived, at which 
he expressed great ire. It is supposed that the peerages 
have put him out of temper. His Majesty did a very strange 
thing about them. Though their patents are not made out, 
and the new Peers are no more Peers than I am, he desired 
them to appear as such in Westminster Abbey and do 
homage. Colonel Berkeley asked me what he should do, and 
said what the King had desired of him. I told him he should 
do no such thing, and he said he would go to the Chancellor 
and ask him. I don't know how it ended. Howe told me 
yesterday morning in Westminster Abbey that Lord Cleve- 
land is to be a duke, though it is not yet acknowledged if it 
be so. There has been a battle about that ; they say that he 
got his boroughs to be made a marquis, and got rid of them 
to be made a duke. 1 

1 [The Earl of Darlington had heen made Marquis of Cleveland in 1827, 
and was raised to the dukedom in January 1833,] 



1831] A DINNER AT ST. JAMES'S. 193 

September 17th. — The coronation went off well, f and 
whereas nobody was satisfied before it everybody was after it. 
No events of consequence. The cholera has got to Berlin, and 
Warsaw is taken by the Russians, who appear to have behaved 
with moderation. Since the deposition of Skrznecki, and the 
reign of clubs and mobs and the perpetration of massacres at 
Warsaw, the public sympathy for the Poles has a good deal 
fallen off. The cholera, which is travelling south, is less violent 
than it was in the north. It is remarkable that the common 
people at Berlin are impressed with the same strange belief that 
possessed those of St. Petersburg that they have been poisoned, 
and Chad writes to-day that they believe there is no such 
disease, and that the deaths ascribed to that malady are pro- 
duced by poison administered by the doctors, who are bribed 
for that purpose ; that the rich finding the poor becoming too 
numerous to be conveniently governed have adopted this 
mode of thinning the population, which was employed with 
success by the English in India ; that the foreign doctors are 
the delegates of a central committee, which is formed in 
London and directs the proceedings, and similar nonsense. 

The talk of the town has been about the King and a 
toast he gave at a great dinner at St. James's the other day. 
He had ninety guests — all his Ministers, all the great people, 
and all the foreign Ambassadors. After dinner he made a 
long, rambling speech in French, and ended by giving as ' a 
sentiment,' as he called it, ' The land we live in.' This was 
before the ladies left the room. After they were gone he 
made another speech in French, in the course of which he 
travelled over every variety of topic that suggested itself to 
his excursive mind, and ended with a very coarse toast and 
the words * Honi soit qui mal y pense.' Sefton, who told it me 
said he never felt so ashamed ; Lord Grey was ready to sink 
into the earth ; everybody laughed of course, and Sefton, who 
sat next to Talleyrand, said to him, ' Eh bien, que pensez-vous 
de cela? ' With his unmoved, immovable face he answered 
only, ' C'est bien remarquable.' 

In the meantime Reform, which has subsided into a calm 
for some time past, is approaching its termination in the 

VOL. II. 



194 BEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

House of Commons, and as it gets near the period of a fresh 
campaign, and a more arduous though a shorter one, agita- 
tion is a little reviving. The < Times ' and other violent news- 
papers are moving heaven and earth to stir up the country 
and intimidate the Peers, many of whom are frightened 
enough already. The general opinion at present is that the 
Peers created at the coronation will not be enough to carry the 
Bill (they are a set of horrid rubbish most of them), but that 
no more will be made at present; that the Opposition, if 
united, will be strong enough to throw out the Bill, but that 
they are so divided in opinion whether to oppose the Bill on 
the second reading or in Committee that this dissension will 
very likely enable it to pass. Up to this time there has been 
no meeting, and nothing has been agreed upon, but there 
would have been one convened by the Duke of Wellington 
but for Lady Mornington's death, and this week they will 
arrange their plan of operations. Prom what Sefton says 
(who knows and thinks only as Brougham and Grey direct 
him) I conclude that the Government are resolved the Bill 
shall pass, that if it is thrown out they will do what the 
Tories recommended, and make as many Peers as may be 
sufficient, for he said the other day he would rather it was 
thrown out on the second reading than pass by a small 
majority. With this resolution (which after having gone 
so far is not unwise) and the feeling out of doors, pass it 
must, and so sure are Government of it that they have begun 
to divide the counties, and have set up an office with clerks, 
maps, &c, in the Council Office, and there the Committee sit 
every day. 

Stolce, September 18th. — I came here yesterday with the 
Chancellor, Creevey, Luttrell, my father and mother, Ester- 
hazy, Neumann. Brougham was tired, never spoke, and went 
to bed early. This morning I got a letter from the Lord Presi- 
dent enclosing an order from the King for a copy of the 
proceedings in Council on the marriage of the Duke of 
Sussex and Lady Augusta Murray. The Chancellor told me 
that the young man Sir Augustus d'Este had behaved very 
ill, having filed a bill in Chancery, into which he had put all 



1831] STATE OF FKANCE. 195 

his father's love letters, written thirty years ago, to perpetuate 
evidence ; that it was all done without the Duke of Sussex's 
consent, but that D'Este had got Lushington's opinion that 
the marriage was valid on the ground that the Marriage 
Act only applied to marriages contracted here, whereas 
this was contracted at Rome. He said Lushington was a 
great authority, but that he had no doubt he was wrong. 
The King is exceedingly annoyed at it. 

September 19th. — Came to town. Talleyrand, Madame de 
Dino, and Alava came \o Stoke yesterday. Talleyrand had a 
circle, but the Chancellor talked too much, and they rather 
spoilt one another. He said one neat thing. They were 
talking of Madame d'Abrantes's c Memoirs,' and of her mother, 
Madame Pernon. My father said, ' M. de Marboeuf etait 
un peu l'amant de Madame Pernon, n'est-ce pas?' He 
said, < Oui, mais je ne sais pas dans quelles proportions.' 

September 20th. — News arrived of great riots at Paris, on 
account of the Polish business and the fall of Warsaw. 
Madame de Dino (who, by-the-bye, Talleyrand says is the 
cleverest man or woman he ever knew) said last night that 
she despaired of the state of things in Prance, that this was 
no mere popular tumult, but part of an organised system of 
disaffection, and that the Carlists had joined the ultra- 
Republicans, that the National Guard was not to be depended 
upon, that 'leur esprit etait fatigue.' Talleyrand himself 
was very low, and has got no intelligence from his Govern- 
ment. This morning I met Lord Grey, and walked with 
him. I told him what Madame de Dino had said. He said 
he knew it all, and how bad things were, and that they would 
be much worse if the Reform Bill was thrown out here. I 
asked him how they would be affected by that. He said that 
a change of Ministry here would have a very bad effect 
there, from which it may be inferred that if beaten they 
mean to resign. He said the French Ministry had been 
very imprudent about Poland. T said, 'How ? for what could 
they have done ? They could only get at Poland through 
Prussia.' He said they might have sent a fleet to the 
Baltic with our concurrence, though we could not urge 

o 2 



196 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XV. 

them to do so. I asked him what he thought would be the 
result of the dissolution of Perier's Government ; I said that 
there appeared to me two alternatives, a general bouleversement 
or the war faction in power under the existing system. He 
replied he did not think there would now be a bouleversement, 
but a Ministry of Lafayette, Lamarque, and all that party 
who were impatient to plunge France into war. I said I did 
not think France could look to a successful war, for the old 
alliance would be re-formed against her. He rejoined that 
Russia was powerless, crippled by this contest, and under the 
necessity of maintaining a great army in Poland ; Austria 
and Prussia were both combustible, half the provinces of the 
former nearly in a state of insurrection ; that the latter had 
enough to do to preserve quiet, and the French would rouse all 
the disaffected spirit which existed in both. I said ' then we 
were on the eve of that state of things which was predicted 
by Canning in his famous speech.' Here we met Ellis, and I 
left them. 

I afterwards saw George Villiers, who told me that he 
knew from a member of the Cabinet that there had been a 
division in it on the question of going out if the Reform 
Bill should be rejected, and that it had been carried by 
a majority that they should. He told me also a curious 
thing about Stanley's Arms Bill : that it had never been im- 
parted to Lord Anglesey, nor to the Cabinet here, and that 
Lord Grey had been obliged to write an apology to Lord 
Anglesey, and to tell him he (Lord Grey) had himself seen the 
Bill for the first time in the newspapers. This he had from 
Lord C, who is a great friend of Lord Anglesey's, and who 
had seen Lord Grey's letter before he left Ireland ; but the 
story appears to me quite incredible, and is probably untrue. 



197 



CHAPTEE XVI. 

i 

"Whig and Tory Meetings on Beform — Resolution to carry the Bill — Holland 
— Badical Jones — Beform Bill thrown out by the Lords — Dorsetshire 
Election — Division among the Tories — Bishop Phillpotts— Prospects of 
Beform — Its Dangers — Biots at Bristol — The Cholera at Sunderland — 
An Attempt at a Compromise on Beform — Lord WharnclifFe negotiates 
with the Ministers — ^Negotiation with Mr. Barnes — Proclamation against 
the Unions — Barbarism of Sunderland — Disappointment of Lord Wharn- 
clifFe — Bristol and Lyons — Commercial Negotiations with France — 
Poulett Thomson — Lord WharnclifTe's Proposal to Lord Grey — Dis- 
approved by the Duke of Wellington — Moderation of Lord John Bussell 
— The Appeal of Drax v. Grosvenor — The Second Beform Bill — 
Violence of Lord Durham — More Body-snatchers — Duke of Richmond 
and Sir Henry Parnell — Panshanger — Creation of Peers — Division of 
Opinion — Negotiation to avoid the Creation of Peers — Lord Wharn- 
cliffe's Interview with the King — Opposition of the Duke of Wellington 
— The Waverers resolve to separate from the Duke. 

September 22nd. — The night before last Croker and Ma- 
caulay made two fine speeches on Reform ; the former spoke 
for two hours and a half, and in a way he had never done 
before. Macaulay was very brilliant. There was a meeting 
at Lord Ebrington's yesterday, called by him, Lyttelton 
Lawley, and of members of the House of Commons only, and 
they (without coming to any resolution) were all agreed to 
prevail on the Government not to resign in the event of 
the Reform Bill being rejected in the House of Lords. I 
have no doubt, therefore, in spite of what Lord Grey said, 
and the other circumstances I have mentioned above, that 
they will not resign, and I doubt whether there will be any 
occasion for it. 

There was a dinner at Apsley House yesterday ; the 
Cabinet of Opposition, to discuss matters before having 



198 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

a general meeting. At this dinner there were sixteen 
or seventeen present, all the leading anti-Beformers of the 
Peers. They agreed to oppose the second reading. Dudley, 
who was there, told me it was tragedy first and farce 
afterwards ; for Eldon and Kenyon, who had dined with 
the Duke of Cumberland, came in after dinner. Chairs 
were placed for them on each side of the Duke, and after 
he had explained to them what they had been discussing, and 
what had been agreed upon, Kenyon made a long speech on 
the first reading of the Bill, in which it was soon apparent 
that he was very drunk, for he talked exceeding nonsense, 
wandered from one topic to another, and repeated the same 
things over and over again. When he had done Eldon 
made a speech on the second reading, and appeared to be 
equally drunk, only, Lord Bathurst told me, Kenyon in his 
drunkenness talked nonsense, but Eldon sense. Dudley said 
it was not that they were as drunk as lords and gentlemen 
sometimes are, but they were drunk like porters. Lyndhurst 
was not there, though invited. He dined at Holland House. 
It is pretty clear, however, that he will vote for the second 
reading, for his wife is determined he shall. I saw her 
yesterday, and she is full of pique and resentment against 
the Opposition and the Duke, half real and half pretended, 
and chatters away about Lyndhurst's not being their cat's 
paw, and that if they choose to abandon him, they must not 
expect him to sacrifice himself for them. The pretexts 
she takes are, that they would not go to the House of Lords 
on Tuesday and support him against Brougham on the 
Bankruptcy Bill, and that the Duke of Wellington wrote to 
her and desired her to influence her husband in the matter 
of Reform. The first is a joke, the second there might be 
a little in, for vanity is always uppermost, but they have 
both some motive of interest, which they will pursue in what- 
ever way they best can. The excuse they make is that they 
want to conceal their strength from the Government, and 
accordingly the Duke of Wellington has not yet entered any 
of his proxies. The truth is that I am by no means sure 
now that it is safe or prudent to oppose the seeond reading ; 



1831 J PKOSPECTS OF THE EEFOEM BILL. 199 

and though I think it very doubtful if any practicable alter- 
ation will be made in Committee, it will be better to take 
that chance, and the chance of an accommodation and com- 
promise between the two parties and the two Houses, than 
to attack it in front. It is clear that Government are re- 
solved to carry the Bill, and equally clear that no means they 
can adopt would be unpopular. They are averse to making' 
more Peers if they can help it, and would rather go quietly 
on, without any fresh changes, and I believe they are con- 
scientiously persuaded that this Bill is the least democratical 
Bill it is possible to get the country to accept, and that if 
offered in time this one will be accepted. I had heard 
before that the country is not enamoured of this Bill, but I 
fear that it is true that they are only indifferent to the 
Conservative clauses of it (if I may so term them), and for 
that reason it may be doubtful whether there would not be 
such a clamour raised in the event of the rejection of this 
Bill as would compel the Ministers to make a new one, more 
objectionable than the old. If its passing clearly appears to be 
inevitable, why, the sooner it is done the better, for at least 
one immense object will be gained in putting an end to 
agitation, and restoring the country to good-humour, and 
it is desirable that the House of Lords should stand as well 
with the people as it can. It is better, as Burke says, e to do 
early, and from foresight, that which we may be obliged to 
do from necessity at last.' I am not more delighted with 
Eeform than I have ever been, but it is the part of prudence 
to take into consideration the present and the future, and 
not to harp upon the past. It matters not how the country 
has been worked up to its present state, if a calm observation 
convinces us that the spirit that has been raised cannot be 
allayed, and that is very clear to me. 

September 24>th. — Peel closed the debate on Thursday 
night with a very fine speech, the best (one of his opponents 
told me, and it is no use asking the opinions of friends if a 
candid opponent is to be found) he had ever made, not only 
on that subject, but on any other; he cut Macaulay to 
ribands. Macaulay is very brilliant, but his speeches are 



200 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

harangues and never replies ; whereas Peel's long experience 
and real talent for debate give him a great advantage in the 
power of reply, which he very eminently possesses. Macaulay, 
however, will probably be a very distinguished man. These 
debates have elicited a vast deal of talent, and have served 
as touchstones to try real merit and power. As a proof of 
what practice and a pretty good understanding can do, there 
is Althorp, who now appears to be an excellent leader, and 
contrives to speak decently upon all subjects, quite as much 
as a leader need do ; for I have always thought that it should 
not be his business to furnish rhetoric and flowers of elo- 
quence, but good-humour, judgment, firmness, discretion, 
business-like talents, and gentlemanlike virtues. 

Dined at Richmond on Friday with the Lyndhursts ; the 
mari talks against the Bill, the women for it. They are like 
the old divisions of families in the Civil Wars. 

My brother-in-law and sister are just returned from a tour 
of three weeks in Holland ; curious spectacle, considering the 
state of the rest of Europe, nothing but loyalty and enthu- 
siasm, adoration of the Orange family ; 2,000,000 of people, 
and an army of 110,000 men; everybody satisfied with the 
•Government, and no desire for Reform. 

Paris, on the point of exploding, is again tranquil, but 
nobody can tell for how long. They bet two to one here 
that the Reform Bill is thrown out on the second reading ; 
and what then ? The meeting at Ebrington's was flat, nothing 
agreed on. Hume wanted to pass some violent resolution, 
but was overruled. Milton made a foolish speech, with 
prospective menaces and present nothingness in it, and 
they separated without having done good or harm. 

Newmarket, October 1st. — Came here last night, to my great 
joy, to get holidays, and leave Reform and cholera and politics 
for racing and its amusements. Just before I came away I met 
Lord Wharncliffe, and asked him about his interview with 
Radical Jones. This blackguard considers himself a sort of 
chief of a faction, and one of the heads of the sans-culottins 
of the present day. He wrote to Lord Wharncliffe and said 
he wished to confer with him, that if he would grant him an 



1831] PEOSPECTS OF THE EEFOEM BILL. 201 

interview lie might bring any person he pleased to witness 
what passed between them. Lord Wharncliffe replied that 
he would call on him, and should be satisfied to have no 
witness. Accordingly he did so, when the other in very civil 
terms told him that he wished to try and impress upon his 
mind (as he was one of the heads of anti-Reform in the 
House of Lords) how dangerous it would be to reject this 
Bill, that all sorts of excesses would follow its rejection, that 
their persons and properties would be perilled, and resistance 
would be unavailing, for that they (the Reformers) were re- 
solved to carry their point. Lord Wharncliffe asked whether 
if this was conceded they would be satisfied. Jones replied, 
' Certainly not ; ' that they must go a great deal further, 
that an hereditary peerage was not to be defended on any 
reasonable theory. Still, he was not for doing away with it, 
that he wished the changes that were inevitable to take 
place quietly, and without violence or confusion. After 
some more discourse in this strain they separated, but very 
civilly, and without any intemperance of expression on the 
part of the Reformer. 

On Monday the battle begins in the House of Lords, and 
up to this time nobody knows how it will go, each party being 
confident, but opinion generally in favour of the Bill being 
thrown out. There is nothing more curious in this question 
than the fact that it is almost impossible to find anybody who 
is satisfied with the part he himself takes upon it, and that it 
is generally looked upon as a choice of evils, in which the 
only thing to do is to choose the least. The Reformers say, 
You had better pass the Bill or you will have a worse. The 
moderate anti-Reformers would be glad to suffer the second 
reading to pass and alter it in Committee, but they do not 
dare do so, because the sulky, stupid, obstinate High Tories 
declare that they will throw the whole thing up, and not 
attempt to alter the Bill if it passes the second reading. 
Every man seems tossed about by opposite considerations 
and the necessity of accommodating his own conduct to the 
caprices, passions, and follies of others. 

Riddlesworth, October 10th. — At Newmarket all last week; 



202 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

all the Peers absent ; here since Friday. Yesterday morning 
the newspapers (all in black l ) announced the defeat of the 
Reform Bill by a majority of forty-one, at seven o'clock on 
Saturday morning, after five nights' debating. By all 
accounts the debate was a magnificent display, and incom- 
parably superior to that in the House of Commons, but 
the reports convey no idea of it. The great speakers on 
either side were : — Lords Grey, Lansdowne, Goderich, 
Plunket, and the Chancellor, for the Bill; against it, 
Lords Wharncliffe (who moved the amendment), Harrowby, 
Carnarvon, Dudley, Wynford, and Lyndhurst. The Duke of 
Wellington's speech was exceedingly bad ; he is in fact, and 
has proved it in repeated instances, unequal to argue a great 
constitutional question. He has neither the command of 
language, the power of reasoning, nor the knowledge re- 
quisite for such an effort. Lord Harrowby's speech was 
amazingly fine, and delivered with great effect ; and the last 
night the Chancellor is said to have surpassed all his former 
exploits, Lyndhurst to have been nearly as good, and Lord 
Grey very great in reply. There was no excitement in 
London the following day, and nothing particular happened 
but the Chancellor being drawn from Downing Street to 
Berkeley Square in his carriage by a very poor mob. The 
majority was much greater than anybody expected, and it 
is to be hoped may be productive of good by showing the 
necessity of a compromise ; for no Minister can make sixty 
Peers, which Lord Grey must do to carry this Bill; it 
would be to create another House of Lords. Nobody knows 
what the Ministers would do, but it was thought they would 
not resign. A meeting of members of the House of Com- 
mons was held under the auspices of Ebrington to agree 
upon a resolution of confidence in the Government this day. 
The majority and the magnificent display of eloquence and 
ability in the House of Lords must exalt the character and 
dignity of that House, and I hope increase its efficacy for 
good purposes and for resistance to this Bill. It may be 
hoped, too, that the apathy of the capital may have some 
1 [Not all of them ; neither the ' Times ' nor the 'Morning Herald.'] 



1831J DQKSETSHIKE ELECTION. 203 

effect in the country, though the unions, which are so well 
disciplined and under the control of their orators, will make 
a stir. On the whole I rejoice at this result, though I had 
taken fright before, and thought it better the Bill should be 
read a second time than be thrown out by a very small 
majority. 

While the debates have been going on there have been 
two elections, one of the Lord Mayor in the City, which the 
Reformers have carried after a sharp contest, and the contest 
for Dorsetshire between Ponsonby and Ashle}-, which is not 
yet over. Ponsonby had a week's start of his opponent, 
notwithstanding which it is so severe that they have been for 
some days within ten or fifteen of each other, and (what is 
remarkable) the anti-Reformer is the popular candidate, and 
has got all the mob with him. This certainly is indicative 
of some change, though not of a reaction, in public opinion. 
There is no longer the same vehemence of desire for this Bill, 
and I doubt whether all the efforts of the press will be able 
to stimulate the people again to the same pitch of excite- 
ment. 

BucJcenham, October 11th. — Came here yesterday; nobody 
of note, not lively, letters every day with an account of what 
is passing. The Radical press is moving heaven and earth to 
produce excitement, but without much effect. There was 
something of a mob which marched about the parks, but no 
mischief done. Londonderry and some others were hooted 
near the House of Lords. Never was a party so crestfallen 
as I hear they are ; they had not a notion of such a division. 
There seems to be a very general desire to bring about a 
fair compromise, and to have a Bill introduced next session 
which may be so framed as to secure the concurrence of 
the majority of both Houses. The finest speeches by all 
accounts were Harrowby's, Lyndhurst's, and Grey's reply ; 
but Henry de Ros, who is a very good judge, writes me 
word that Lyndhurst's was the most to his taste. 

October 12th. — The Reformers appear to have rallied their 
spirits. Lord Grey went to Windsor, was graciously received 
by the King, and obtained the dismissal of Lord Howe, which 



204 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

will serve to show the King's entire good- will to his present 
Ministers. Ebrington's resolution of confidence was carried 
bj a great majority in the House of Commons after some 
violent speeches from Macaulay, Sheil, and O'Connell, and very 
moderate ones and in a low tone on the other side. Macau- 
lay's speech was as usual very eloquent, but as inflammatory 
as possible. Such men as these three can care nothing into 
what state of confusion the country is thrown, for all they 
want is a market to which they may bring their talents ; * 
but how the Miltons, Tavistocks, Althorps, and all who 
have a great stake in the country can run the same course 
is more than I can conceive or comprehend. Party is indeed, 
as Swift says, 'the madness of many,' when carried to its 
present pitch. In the meantime the Conservative party are 
as usual committing blunders, which will be fatal to them. 
Lord Harrowby was to have moved yesterday or the day 
before, in the House of Lords, a resolution pledging the 
House to take into consideration early in the next session 
the acknowledged defects in the representation, with a view 
to make such ameliorations in it as might be consistent with 
the Constitution, or something to this effect. This has not 
been done because the Duke of Wellington objects. He will 
not concur because he thinks the proposition should come 
from Government ; as if this was a time to stand upon such 
punctilios, and that it was not of paramount importance to 
show the country that the Peers are not obstinately bent 
upon opposing all Reform. I had hoped that he had profited 
by experience, and that at least his past errors in politics 
might have taught him a little modesty, and that he would 
not have thwarted measures which were proposed by the 
wisest and most disinterested of his own party. I can con- 
ceive no greater misfortune at this moment than such a dis- 
union of that party, and to have its deliberations ruled by 
the obstinacy and prejudices of the Duke. He is a great 
man in little things, but a little man in great matters — I 
mean in civil affairs ; in those mighty questions which 

1 This was very unjust to Macaulay, and not true as to Sheil ; to O'Con- 
nell alone applicable. 



1831] LORD GREY AND BISHOP PHILLPOTTS. 205 

embrace enormous and various interests and considerations, 
and to comprehend which great knowledge of human nature, 
great sagacity, coolness, and impartiality are required, he is 
not fit to govern and direct. His mind has not been suffi- 
ciently disciplined, nor saturated with knowledge and ma- 
tured by reflection and communication with other minds, to 
enable him to be a safe and efficient leader in such times as 
these. 

[In reading over these remarks upon the Duke of Wel- 
lington, and comparing them with the opinions I now enter- 
tain of his present conduct:, and of the nature and quality of 
his mind, I am compelled to ask myself whether I did not 
then do him injustice. On the whole I think not. He is 
not, nor ever was, a little man in anything, great or small ; 
but I am satisfied that he has made great political blunders, 
though with the best and most patriotic intentions, and that 
his conduct throughout the Reform contest was one of the 
greatest and most unfortunate of them. — July 1838.] 

October 14th. — The town continues quite quiet ; the 
country nearly so. The press strain every nerve to produce 
excitement, and the 6 Times ' has begun an assault on the 
bishops, whom it has marked out for vengeance and defama- 
tion for having voted against the Bill. Althorp and Lord John 
Russell have written grateful letters to Attwood as Chairman 
of the Birmingham Union, thus indirectly acknowledging 
that puissant body. There was a desperate strife in the 
House of Lords between Phill potts and Lord Grey, in which 
the former got a most tremendous dressing. Times must 
be mightily changed when my sympathies go with this 
bishop, and even now, though full of disgust with the other 
faction, I have a pleasure in seeing him trounced. The 
shade of Canning may rejoice at the sight of Grey smiting 
Phillpotts. Even on such a question Phillpotts was essentially 
in the right; but he lost his temper, floundered, and got 
punished. It was most indecent and disgusting to hear 
Brougham from the Woolsack, in a strain of the bitterest 
irony and sarcasm, but so broad as to be without the sem- 
blance of disguise, attack the bench of bishops. I am of 



206 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

opinion that it would have been far better never to have let 
them back into the House of Lords, but now that they are 
there I would not thrust them out, especially at this moment. 
Lord Grey in this debate gave no handle certainly, for he 
interposed in their favour, and rebuked Lord Suffield, who 
attacked them first, and told him he was out of order, and 
then Phillpotts very foolishly attacked him. 

October 15th. — A furious attack in the House of Commons 
upon Althorp's and John Russell's letters to Attwood by 
Hardinge and Vyvyan. Peel not there, having hopped off to 
Staffordshire, to the great disgust of his party, whom he 
never scruples to leave in the lurch. They made wretched 
excuses for these letters, and could only have recourse to the 
pretence of indignation at being thought capable of foment- 
ing disorders, which is all very well; but they do foment 
discord and discontent by every means in their power. With 
a yelling majority in the House, and a desperate press out 
of it, they go on in their reckless course without fear or 
shame. Lord Harrowby made a speech in the House of 
Lords, and declared his conviction that the time was come 
for effecting a Reform, and that he would support one to a 
certain extent, which he specified. In the House he was 
coolly received, and the \ Times ' hardly deigned to notice 
what he said. Parliament is to be up on Thursday next, 
and will probably not meet till January, when of course 
the first thing done will be to bring in the Bill again. What, 
then, is gained ? For as Ministers take every opportunity of 
declaring that they will accept nothing less efficient (as 
they call it) than the present Bill, no compromise can be 
looked for. Lord Harrowby is the only man who has said 
what he will do, and probably he goes further than the bulk 
of his party would approve of; and yet he is far behind the 
Ministerial plan. So that there seems little prospect of 
getting off for less than the old Bill, for the Opposition will 
hardly venture to stop the next in limine as they did this. 
I do not see why they should hope to amend the next Bill in 
Committee any more than the last, and the division which 
they dreaded the other day is not less likely, and would not 



1831] DANGERS OP REFORM. 207 

be less fatal upon another occasion. If, then, it is to pass at 
last, it comes back to what I thought before, that it might as 
well have passed at first as at last, and the excitement con- 
sequent on its rejection have been spared, as well as the 
odium which has accrued to the Peers, which will not be 
forgotten or laid aside. 

The Dorsetshire election promises to end in favour of 
Ashley, and there will be a contest for Cambridgeshire, which 
may also end in favour of the anti-Reform candidate. These 
victories I really believe to be unfortunate, for they are 
taken (I am arguing as if they were won, though, with regard 
to the first, it is the same thing by contrast with the last 
election) by the Tories and anti-Reform champions as 
undoubted proofs of the reaction of public opinion, and they 
are thereby encouraged to persevere in opposition under the 
false notion that this supposed reaction will every day gain 
ground. I wish it were so with all my soul, but believe it 
is no such thing, and that although there may be fewer 
friends to the Bill than there were, particularly among the 
agriculturists, Reform is not a whit less popular with the mass 
of the people in the manufacturing districts, throughout the 
unions, and generally amongst all classes and in all parts of 
the country. When I see men, and those in very great 
numbers, of the highest birth, of immense fortunes, of 
undoubted integrity and acknowledged talents, zealously and 
conscientiously supporting this measure, I own I am lost in 
astonishment, and even doubt ; for I can't help asking 
myself whether it is possible that such men would be the 
advocates of measures fraught with all the peril we ascribe to 
these, whether Ave are not in reality mistaken, and labouring 
under groundless alarm generated by habitual prejudices 
and erroneous calculations. But often as this doubt comes 
across my mind, it is always dispelled by a reference to and 
comparison of the arguments on both sides, and by the 
lessons which all that I have ever read and all the conclu- 
sions I have been able to draw from the study of history 
have impressed on my mind. I believe these measures full 
of danger, but that the manner in which they have been intro- 



208 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI, 

duced, discussed, defended, and supported is more dangerous 
still. The total unsettlement of men's minds, the bringing 
into contempt all the institutions which have been hitherto 
venerated, the aggrandisement of the power of the people, 
the embodying and recognition of popular authority, the use 
and abuse of the King's name, the truckling to the press, are 
things so subversive of government, so prejudicial to order 
and tranquillity, so encouraging to sedition and disaffection, 
that I do not see the possibility of the country settling down 
into that calm and undisturbed state in which it was before 
this question was mooted, and without which there can be no 
happiness or security to the community. A thousand mush- 
room orators and politicians have sprung up all over the 
country, each big with his own ephemeral importance, and 
every one of whom fancies himself fit to govern the nation. 
Amongst them are some men of active and powerful minds, 
and nothing is less probable than that these spirits of mis- 
chief and misrule will be content to subside into their original 
nothingness, and retire after the victory has been gained 
into the obscurity from which they emerged. 

Newmarket, October 23rd. — Nothing but racing all this 
week ; Parliament has been prorogued and all is quiet. The 
world seems tired, and requires rest. How soon it will 
all begin again God knows, but it will not be suffered to sleep 
long. 

London, November 11th. — Nothing written for a long 
time ; I went after the second October meeting to Euston, 
and from thence to Horsham, returned to Newmarket, was 
going to Felbrigg, but came to town on Tuesday last (the 
8th) on account of the cholera, which has broken out at Sun- 
derland. The country was beginning to slumber after the 
fatigues of Reform, when it was rattled up by the business of 
Bristol, 1 which for brutal ferocity and wanton, unprovoked 
violence may vie with some of the worst scenes of the 

1 [Riots broke out with great violence at Bristol on the 29th of October, 
the pretext being the entry of Sir Charles Wetherell into that city (of which 
he was Recorder), who was notorious for his violent opposition to the 
Reform Bill. Much property was destroyed, and many lives lost.] 



1831] EIOTS AT BKISTOL. 209 

French Revolution, and may act as a damper to our national 
pride. The spirit which produced these atrocities was gene- 
rated by Reform, but no pretext was afforded for their actual 
commission ; it was a premature outbreaking of the thirst for 
plunder, and longing after havoc and destruction, which is 
the essence of Reform in the mind of the mob. The details 
are ample, and to be met with everywhere ; nothing could 
exceed the ferocity of the populace, the imbecility of the 
magistracy, or the good conduct of the troops. More punish- 
ment was inflicted by them than has been generally known, 
and some hundreds were killed or severely wounded by the 
sabre. One body of dragoons pursued a rabble of colliers 
into the country, and covered the fields and roads with the 
bodies of wounded wretches, making a severe example of 
them. In London there would probably have been a great 
uproar and riot, but fortunately Melbourne, who was fright- 
ened to death at the Bristol affair, gave Lord Hill and 
ITitzroy Somerset carte blanche, and they made such a provi- 
sion of military force in addition to the civil power that the 
malcontents were paralysed. The Bristol business has done 
some good, inasmuch as it has opened people's eyes (at least 
so it is said), but if we are to go on as we do with a mob- 
ridden Government and a foolish King, who renders himself 
subservient to all the wickedness and folly of his Ministers, 
where is the advantage of having people's eyes open, when 
seeing they will not perceive, and hearing they will not 
understand ? Nothing was wanting to complete our situation 
but the addition of physical evil to our moral plague, and 
that is come in the shape of the cholera, which broke out at 
Sunderland a few days ago. To meet the exigency Govern- 
ment has formed another Board of Health, but without dis- 
solving the first, though the second is intended to swallow up 
the first and leave it a mere nullity. Lord Lansdowne, who 
is President of the Council, an office which for once promises 
not to be a sinecure, has taken the opportunity to go to 
Bowood, and having come up (sent for express) on account of 
the cholera the day it was officially declared really to be that 
disease, he has trotted back to his house in the country. 
VOL II. p 



210 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVL 

November 14th. — For the last two or tliree days the reports 
from Sunderland about the cholera have been of a doubtful 
character. The disease makes so little progress that the 
doctors begin again to doubt whether it is the Indian 
cholera, and the merchants, shipowners, and inhabitants, 
who suffer from the restraints imposed upon an infected 
place, are loudly complaining of the measures which have 
been adopted, and strenuously insisting that their town is in 
a more healthy state than usual, and that the disease is no 
more than what it always is visited with every year at this 
season. In the meantime all preparations are going on in 
London, just as if the disorder was actually on its way to the 
metropolis. We have a Board at the Council Office, between 
which and the Board at the College some civilities have 
passed, and the latter is now ready to yield up its functions 
to the former, which, however, will not be regularly consti- 
tuted without much difficulty and many jealousies, all owing 
to official carelessness and mismanagement. The Board has 
been diligently employed in drawing up suggestions and in- 
structions to local boards and parochial authorities, and great 
activity has prevailed here in establishing committees for the 
purpose of visiting the different districts of the metropolis, and 
making such arrangements as may be necessary in the event 
of sickness breaking out. There is no lack of money or 
labour for this end, and one great good will be accomplished 
let what will happen, for much of the filth and misery of the 
town will be brought to light, and the condition of the poorer 
and more wretched of the inhabitants can hardly fail to be 
ameliorated. The reports from Sunderland exhibit a state 
of human misery, and necessarily of moral degradation, such 
as I hardly ever heard of, and it is no wonder, when a great 
part of the community is plunged into such a condition 
(and we may fairly suppose that there is a gradually 
mounting scale, with every degree of wretchedness up to the 
wealth and splendour which glitter on the surface of society), 
that there should be so many who are ripe for any desperate 
scheme of revolution. At Sunderland they say there are 
houses with 150 inmates, who are huddled five and six in 



1831] OVERTURES EOR A COMPROMISE. 211 

a bed. They are in the lowest state of poverty. The sick in 
these receptacles are attended by an apothecary's boy, who 
brings them (or I suppose tosses them) medicines without 
distinction or enquiry. 

I saw Lord Wharncliffe last night, just returned from 
Yorkshire; he gives a bad account of the state of the public 
mind ; he thinks that there is a strong revolutionary spirit 
abroad ; told me that the Duke of Wellington had written to 
the King a memorial upon the danger of the associations 
that were on foot. 

Roehampton, November 19th. — On Tuesday last I went 
with the Duke of Eichmond to pass a day at Shirley Lodge, 
a house that has been lent him by Mr. Maberly, and there 
we had a great deal of conversation about Eeform and 
general politics, in the course of which I was struck by 
his apparent candour and moderation, and when I told him 
that nothing would do but a compromise between the parties 
he acceded to that opinion, and said that he should like 
to go to Lord Wharncliffe, and talk the matter over with 
him. This was on Wednesday. Yesterday morning I 
called on Lord Wharncliffe, and told him what Eichmond 
had said. He was sitting before a heap of papers, and when 
I told him this he laughed and said that Eichmond was 
behindhand, that matters had gone a great deal further than 
this, and then proceeded to give me the following account of 
what had passed. A short time ago Palmerston spoke to his 
son, John Wortley, and expressed a desire that some com- 
promise could be effected between the Government and the 
Opposition leaders, which John imparted to Lord Harrowby 
and his father. The overture was so well received by them 
that Stanley went to Sandon, Lord Harrowby's place in 
Staffordshire, in his way to Ireland, with Lord Grey's 
consent, to talk it over with Lord Sandon. After this Lord 
Wharncliffe went to Sandon, and the two fathers and 
two sons discussed the matter, and came to a sort of 
general resolution as to the basis on which they would treat, 
which they drew up, and which Wharncliffe read to me. It 
was moderate, temperate, embraced ample concessions, and 

p 2 



212 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

asserted the necessity of each party refraining from de- 
manding of the other what either was so pledged to as to be 
unable to concede without dishonour. On Wharncliffe's 
return to town he again saw Palmer ston, and communicated 
to him Harrowby's concurrence in an equitable adjustment 
of the Reform question, and then suggested that if Govern- 
ment really desired this, it would be better that he (Wharn- 
cliffe) should see Lord Grey himself on the subject. Palmers- 
ton told Lord Grey, who assented, and gave Wharncliffe a 
rendezvous at East Sheen on Wednesday last. There they 
had a long conversation, which by his account was conducted 
in a very fair and amicable spirit on both sides, and they 
seem to have come to a good understanding as to the 
principle on which they should treat. On parting, Grey 
shook hands with him twice, and told him he had not felt so 
much relieved for a long time. The next day Lord Grey 
made a minute of their conversation, which he submitted to 
the Cabinet ; they approved of it, and he sent it to Wharn- 
cliffe to peruse, who returned it to Lord Grey. In this 
state the matter stood yesterday morning, apparently with 
every prospect of being arranged. Wharncliffe had already 
spoken to Dudley, Lyndhurst, and De Eos, the only Peers of 
his party he had seen, and to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
who were all delighted at what had passed. He had written 
to the Duke of Wellington and Peel, and he is busying 
himself in consulting and communicating with all the Peers 
and influential Commoners of the party whom he can find in 
town. The terms are not settled, but the general basis 
agreed upon seems to be this : the concession of Schedule A, 
of representatives to the great towns, and a great extension 
of the county representation on one side ; the abandonment, 
or nearly so, of Schedule B, such an arrangement with 
regard to the 101. qualification as shall have the practical 
effect of a higher rate, and an understanding that the 
manufacturing interest is not to have a preponderating 
influence in the county representation ; a great deal to be 
left open to discussion, especially on all the subordinate 
points. 



1831] NEGOTIATION WITH THE WAVEEEES. 213 

Such is the history of this curious transaction, which 
affords a triumphant justification of the course which 
the Opposition adopted; indeed, Palmerston admitted to 
Wharncliffe that their tactics had been entirely judicious. 
It is likewise a great homage rendered to character, for 
Wharncliffe has neither wealth, influence, nor superior 
abilities, nor even popularity with his own party. He is a 
spirited, sensible, zealous, honourable, consistent country 
gentleman ; their knowledge of his moderation and integrity 
induced Ministers to commit themselves to him, and he will 
thus be in all probability enabled to render an essential 
service to his country, and be a principal instrument in the 
settlement of a question the continued agitation of which 
would have been perilous in the extreme. Besides the pros- 
pect of a less objectionable Bill, an immense object is gained 
in the complete separation of the Ministry from the subversive 
party, for their old allies the Radicals will never forgive 
them for this compromise with the anti-Reformers, and they 
have now no alternative but to unite with those who call 
themselves the Conservative party against the rebels, repub- 
licans, associates, and all the disaffected in the country. 
After all their declarations and their unbending insolence, to 
have brought down their pride to these terms, and to the 
humiliation of making overtures to a party whose voice was 
only the other day designated by John Russell as 'the 
whisper of a faction,' shows plainly how deeply alarmed they 
are at the general state of the country, and how the confla- 
gration of Bristol has suddenly illuminated their minds. That 
incident, the language of the associations, the domiciliary 
visits to Lord Grey at midnight of Place and his rabble, and 
the licentiousness of the press, have opened their eyes, and 
convinced them that if existing institutions are to be preserved 
at all there is no time to be lost in making such an arrange- 
ment as may enable all who have anything to lose to 
coalesce for their mutual safety and protection. "Whatever 
may be the amount of their concessions, the Radicals will 
never pardon Lord Grey for negotiating with the Tories at 
all, and nothing will prevent his being henceforward the 



214 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

object of their suspicion and aversion, and marked out for 
their vengeance. By what process Althorp and John Eussell 
were induced to concur, and how they are to set about swal- 
lowing their own words, I do nob guess. 

As a proof of the disposition which exists, and the good 
understanding between Wharncliffe and the Government, he 
told me that some time ago Ward and Palmer went to him, 
and said that in the City the majority of men of weight and 
property were favourable to Reform, but not to the late Bill, 
and that they were desirous of having a declaration drawn 
up for signature, expressive of their adherence to Reform, but 
of their hope that the next measure might be such as would 
give satisfaction to all parties. Wharncliffe drew this up 
(there was likewise an acknowledgment of the right of the 
House of Lords to exercise their privileges as they had done) 
and gave it to them. It is gone to be signed, having been 
previously submitted to Grey and Althorp, who approved 
of it. 

November 21st. — Came to town from Roehampton yester- 
day morning, saw Henry de Ros, who had seen Barnes l the 
evening before, and opened to him the pending negotiation. 
His rage and fury exceeded all bounds. He swore Brougham 
and Grey (particularly the former) were the greatest of 
villains. After a long discussion he agreed to try and per- 
suade his colleagues to adopt a moderate tone, and not to 
begin at once to jeter feu et flamme, Henry's object was to 
persuade him, if possible, that the interest of the paper will 
be in the long run better consulted by leaning towards the 
side of order and quiet than by continuing to exasperate 
and inflame. He seemed to a certain degree moved by this 
argument, though he is evidently a desperate Radical. Henry 
went to Melbourne afterwards, who is most anxious for the 
happy consummation of this affair, but expressed some alarm 
lest they should be unable to agree upon the details. There 
is an article in the c Times ' this morning of half-menacing 
import, sulkily and gloomily written, but not ferocious, and 

1 [Then editor of the ' Times ' newspaper.] 



1831] PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE UNIONS. 215 

leaving it open to them to take what line they think fit. In 
the afternoon I met Melbourne, who told me they were going 
to put forth a proclamation against c Attwood and the Bir- 
mingham fellows,' which was grateful to my ears. 

November 22nd. — The King came to town yesterday for a 
Council, at which the meeting of Parliament on the 6th of 
December was settled. The proclamation against the unions 
(which was not ready, and the King signed a blank) and some 
orders about cholera were despatched. Lord Grey told me 
that the union had already determined to dissolve itself. 

My satisfaction was yesterday considerably damped by 
what I heard of the pending negotiation concerning Reform. 
Agar Ellis at Roehampton talked with great doubt of its 
being successful, which I attributed to his ignorance of what 
had passed, but I fear it is from his knowledge that the 
Government mean, in fact, to give up nothing of importance. 
George Bentinck came to me in the morning, and told me he 
had discovered from the Duke of Richmond that the conces- 
sions were not only to be all one way, but that the altered 
Bill would be, in fact, more objectionable than the last, inas- 
much as it is more democratic in its tendency, so much so 
that Richmond is exceedingly dissatisfied himself, for he has 
always been the advocate of the aristocratic interest in the 
Cabinet, and has battled to make the Bill less adverse to it. 
Now he says he can contend no longer, for he is met by the 
unanswerable argument that their opponents are ready to 
concede more. I own I was alarmed, and my mind misgave 
me when I heard of the extreme satisfaction of Althorp 
and Co. ; and I always dreaded that Wharncliffe, however 
honest and well-meaning, had not calibre enough to conduct 
such a negotiation, and might be misled by his vanity. He 
bustles about the town, chatting away toall the people he meets, 
and I fear is both ignorant himself of what he is about and 
involuntarily deceiving others too ; he is in a fool's paradise. 
I spoke to Henry de Ros about this last night, who seemed 
by no means aware of it, and it is difficult to believe that 
Lyndhurst and Harrowby should not be perfectly alive to all 
the consequences of Wharncliffe's proceedings, or that they 



216 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

would sanction them if they had really the tendency that 
George Bentinck gives me to understand . 

The cholera, which is going on (but without greatly 
extending itself) at Sunderland, has excited an unusual alarm, 
but it is now beginning to subside. People seeing that it 
does not appear elsewhere take courage, but the preparations 
are not relaxed, and they are constantly enforced by the 
Central Board of Health (as it is called), which is established 
at the Council Office, and labours very assiduously in the 
cause. Undoubtedly a great deal of good will be done in 
the way of purification. As to the disorder, if it had not 
the name of cholera nobody would be alarmed, for many an 
epidemic has prevailed at different times far more fatal than 
this. On Friday last we despatched Dr. Barry down to 
Sunderland with very ample powers, and to procure informa- 
tion, which it is very difficult to get. Nothing can be more 
disgraceful than the state of that town, exhibiting a lament- 
able proof of the practical inutility of that diffusion of know- 
ledge and education which we boast of, and which we fancy 
renders us so morally and intellectually superior to the rest 
of the world. When Dr. Russell was in Eussia, he was dis- 
gusted with the violence and prejudices he found there on 
the part of both medical men and the people, and he says he 
finds just as much here. The conduct of the people of 
Sunderland on this occasion is more suitable to the barbarism 
of the interior of Africa than to a town in a civilised country. 
The medical men and the higher classes are split into parties, 
quarrelling about the nature of the disease, and perverting 
and concealing facts which militate against their respective 
theories. The people are taught to believe that there is 
really no cholera at all, and that those who say so intend 
to plunder and murder them. The consequence is pro- 
digious irritation and excitement, an invincible repugnance 
on the part of the lower orders to avail themselves of any of 
the preparations which are made for curing them, and a 
proneness to believe any reports, however monstrous and 
exaggerated. In a very curious letter which was received 
yesterday from Dr. Daur, he says (after complaining of the 



1831] DISAPPOINTMENT. 217 

medical men, who would send him no returns of the cases of 
sickness) it was believed that bodies had been dissected 
before the life was out of them, and one woman was said to 
have been cut up while she was begging to be spared. The 
consequence of this is that we have put forward a strong 
order to compel medical men to give information, and another 
for the compulsory removal of nuisances. It is, however, 
rather amusing that everybody who has got in their vicinity 
anything disagreeable, or that they would like to be rid of, 
thinks that now is their time, and the table of the Board of 
Health is covered with applications of this nature, from every 
variety of person and of place. 

November 23rd. — Dr. Barry's first letter from Sunderland 
came yesterday, in which he declares the identity of the 
disease with the cholera he had seen in Russia. He describes 
some cases he had visited, exhibiting scenes of misery and 
poverty far exceeding what one could have believed it possible 
to find in this country ; but we who float on the surface of 
society know but little of the privations and sufferings which 
pervade the mass. I wrote to the Bishop of Durham, to the 
chief magistrates, and sent down 200?. to Colonel Creagh 
(which Althorp immediately advanced) to relieve the im- 
mediate and pressing cases of distress. 

Saw George Bentinck in the afternoon, who confirmed 
my apprehension that Wharncliffe had been cajoled into a 
negotiation which Government intended should end by 
getting all they want. Richmond, Grey, and Palmerston 
were in a minority of three in the Cabinet for putting off 
the meeting of Parliament. One of the most Radical of the 
Cabinet is Goderich. Such a thing it is to be of feeble 
intellect and character, and yet he is a smart speaker, and 
an agreeable man. The moderate party are Richmond, who 
cannot have much weight, Stanley, who is in Ireland, Lans- 
downe, who is always ' gone to Bowood,' Palmerston, and 
Melbourne. Yet I am led to think that if Wharncliffe had 
insisted on better conditions, and held out, he would have 
got them, and that the Cabinet were really disposed to 
make all the concessions they could without compromising 



218 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

themselves. The meeting in the City yesterday was a total 
failure. Henry Drummond, who is mad, but very clever, and 
a Reformer, though for saving the rotten boroughs, spoke 
against the declaration, some others followed him, and after 
a couple of hours wasted in vain endeavours to procure 
unanimity the meeting broke up, and nothing was done. I 
saw Wharncliffe last night, who was exceedingly disap- 
pointed. 

November 28th. — The negotiation with Wharncliffe goes 
on languidly; he wrote to Lord Grey the other day, and 
suggested some heads as the basis of an accommodation, 
consisting of some extension of Schedule B, excluding town 
voters from county voting, and one or two other points ; 
to which Lord Grey replied that some of the things he 
mentioned might be feasible, but that there would be great 
difficulty about others, that he feared nothing might come of 
their communications, as he would not hear of any other 
Peers who were disposed to go along with him. It is not a 
bad thing that they should each be impressed with a salutary 
apprehension, the one that he will have the same difficulties 
to encounter in the House of Lords, the other that nobody 
will follow him, for it will render an arrangement more pro- 
bable than if they both thought they had only to agree 
together, and that the rest must follow as a matter of course. 
The Duke of Wellington has written again to Wharncliffe, 
declining altogether to be a party to any negotiation. De 
Eos told me that he never saw such a letter as Peel's — so 
stiff, dry, and reserved, just like the man in whom great 
talents are so counteracted, and almost made mischievous, by 
the effects of his cold, selfish, calculating character. In the 
meantime the state of the country is certainly better, the 
proclamation putting down the unions has been generally 
obeyed, the press has suspended its fury, and the approach 
of the meeting of Parliament seems to have calmed the 
country to a great degree. The event most to be desired 
is that the Government may carry their Bill quietly through 
the House of Commons, amendments be carried in the Com- 
mittee of the House of Lords, and upon these there may be 



1831] POULETT THOMSON. 219 

a compromise, though after all it is impossible not to have 
a secret misgiving that the alterations which appear de- 
sirable may prove to be mischievous, for it is the great evil 
of the measure that being certainly new no human being 
can guess how it will work, or how its different parts will 
act upon one another, and what result they will produce. 

There seems to be a constant sort of electrical reciprocity 
of effort between us and France just now. The three days 
produced much of our political excitement, and our Bristol 
business has been acted with great similarity of circumstance 
at Lyons, and is still going on. Talleyrand produced the 
' Moniteur ' last night with the account, lamented that the 
Due d'Orleans had been sent with Marshal Soult to Lyons, 
which he said was unnecessary and absurd, that Soult was 
the best man for the purpose of putting it down. It was 
begun by the workpeople, who were very numerous, not 
political in its objects, but the cries denoted a mixture of 
everything, as they shouted ' Henri V., Napoleon II., La 
Eepublique, and Bristol.' He was at Lady Holland's, looking 
very cadaverous, and not very talkative, talked of Madame 
du Barri, that she had been very handsome, and had some 
remains of beauty up to the period of her death ; of Luckner, 
who was guillotined, and as the car passed on the people 
cried (as they used), ' A la guillotine ! a la guillotine ! ' 
Luckner turned round and said, ' On y va, canaille.' 

We have just sent a commission to Paris to treat with 
the French Government about a commercial treaty on 
the principles of free trade. Poulett Thomson, who has 
been at Paris some time, has originated it, and Althorp 
selected George Villiers for the purpose, but has added to him 
as a colleague Dr. Bowring, who has in fact been selected by 
Thomson, a theorist, and a jobber, deeply implicated in the 
' Greek Fire,' and a Benthamite. He was the subject of a 
cutting satire of Moore's, beginning, 

The ghost of Miltiades came by night, 
And stood by the bed of the Benthamite ; 

but he has been at Paris some time, understanding the 



220 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

subject, and has wound himself into some intimacy with 
the French King and his Ministers. It is, however, Poulett 
Thomson who has persuaded Althorp to appoint him, in 
order to have a creature of his own there. 

I have never been able to understand the enormous 
unpopularity of this man, who appears civil, well-bred, in- 
telligent, and agreeable (only rather a coxcomb), and has 
made a certain figure in the House of Commons, but it has 
been explained to me by a person who knows him well. 
He was originally a merchant, and had a quantity of 
counting-house knowledge. He became member of a club 
of political economists, and a scholar of M'Culloch's. In 
this club there were some obscure but very able men, and by 
them he got crammed with the principles of commerce and 
political economy, and from his mercantile connections he 
got facts. He possessed great industry and sufficient ability 
to work up the materials he thus acquired into a very 
plausible exhibition of knowledge upon these subjects, and 
having opportunities of preparing himself for every particular 
question, and the advantage of addressing an audience the. 
greater part of which is profoundly ignorant, he passed for 
a young gentleman of extraordinary ability and profound 
knowledge, and amongst the greatest of his admirers was 
Althorp, who, when the Whigs came in, promoted him to his 
present situation. Since he has been there he has not had 
the same opportunities of learning his lesson from others 
behind the curtain, and the envy which always attends success 
has delighted to pull down his reputation, so that he now 
appears something like the jackdaw stripped of the peacock's 
feathers. 

November 3Qth. — Went to breakfast at the Tower, which 
I had never seen. Dined with Lady Holland, first time for 
seven years, finished the quarrel, and the last of that batch ; 
they should not last for ever. In the morning Wharncliffe 
came to me from Lord Grey's, with whom he had had a final 
interview. He showed me the paper he gave Grey contain- 
ing his proposals, which were nearly to this effect : conceding 
what the Government required, with these exceptions and 



1831] WHAENCLIFFE'S PEOPOSAL. 221 

counter-concessions, an alteration in Schedule B with a 
view to preserve in many cases the two members ; that 
voters for the great manufacturing towns should have votes 
for the counties ; that London districts should not have so 
many representatives; that when the franchise was given 
to great manufacturing towns, their county should not have 
more representatives ; that corporate rights should be saved, 
though with an infusion of 10£. voters where required ; that 
Cheltenham and Brighton (particularly) should have no 
members. These were the principal heads, proposed in a 
paper of moderate length and civil expression. Grey said 
the terms were inadmissible, that some parts of his proposal 
might be feasible, but the points on which Wharncliffe most 
insisted (London, and town and county voting) he could 
not agree to. So with many expressions of civility and 
mutual esteem they parted. He is disappointed, but not de- 
jected, and I tried to persuade him that an arrangement on 
this basis is not less probable than it was. 

The fact is it would have been nearly impossible for 
Government to introduce a Bill so different from the first as 
these changes would have made it, as the result of a negotia- 
tion. They would have been exposed to great obloquy, and 
have had innumerable difficulties to encounter, but if the Bill 
goes into a Committee of the Lords, and the other clauses 
pass without opposition, the Government may not think 
themselves obliged to contest these alterations. I think the 
Government would accept them, and probably they feel that 
in no other way could they do so. It seems to me that the 
success of these amendments depends now very much upon 
the Opposition themselves, upon their firmness, their union, 
and above all their reasonableness. Saw Talleyrand last 
night, who said they had better news from Lyons, that there 
was nothing political in it. News came yesterday morning 
that the cholera had broken out at Marseilles. 

December 3rd. — Wharncliffe showed me his correspon- 
dence with the Duke of Wellington on this negotiation. 
They differed greatly, but amicably enough, though I take 
it he was not very well pleased with Wharncliffe's last letter, 



222 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

in which he distinctly told the Duke that his speech on the 
Address, and declaration against any Reform, was what over- 
threw his Government. This he never will admit, and, pass- 
ing over the proximate cause, always refers his fall to (what 
was certainly the ! remote cause) the Catholic question — that 
is, to the breaking up of the Tory party which followed it, 
and the union of the old Tories with the Whigs and Radicals 
on purpose to turn him out. In this correspondence 
Wharncliffe has much the best of it, and I was surprised to 
find with what tenacity the Duke clings to his cherished 
prejudices, and how he shuts his eyes to the signs of the 
times and the real state of the country. With the point at 
issue he never would grapple. Wharncliffe argued for con- 
cession, because they have not the means of resistance, and 
that they are in fact at the mercy of their opponents. The 
Duke admitted the force against them, but thought it would 
be possible to govern the country without Reform ' if the 
King was not against them ' — an important increment of 
his conditions ; there is no doubt that c the King's name is 
a tower of strength, which they upon the adverse faction 
want ' — and he continued through all his letters arguing the 
question on its abstract merits, and repeating the topic that 
had been over and over again urged, but without reference to 
the actual state of things and the means of resistance. It 
seems, however, pretty clear that he will oppose this Bill just 
as he did the last, and he will probably have a great many 
followers ; but the party is broken up, for Wharncliffe and 
Harrowby will vote for the second reading ; the bishops will 
generally go with them, and probably a sufficient number of 
Peers. If Lord Grey can see a reasonable chance of carrying 
the Bill without making Peers, there can be very little doubt 
he will put off that resource till the last moment. 

December 4th. — Dined with Talleyrand yesterday. He 
complained to me of Durham's return, and of ' sa funeste in- 
fluence sur Lord Grey : ' that because he had been at 
Brussels and at Paris, he fancied nobody but himself knew 
anything of foreign affairs ; he praised Palmerston highly. 
In the evening to Lady Harrowby, who told me John 



1831] AN APPEAL FKOM LORD CHANCELLOR BROUGHAM. 223 

Russell had been with her, all moderation and candour, and 
evidently for the purpose of keeping* alive the amicable re- 
lations which had been begun by WharnclinVs negotiation. 
When Lady Harrowby said it was over, he replied, ' For the 
present/ said how glad he should be of a compromise, hinted 
that Sandon might be instrumental, that he might move an 
amendment in the House of Commons ; abused Macaulay's 
violent speech — in short, was all mild and doucereux — all 
which proves that they do wish to compromise if they could 
manage it conveniently. Lord John Russell told her that there 
was no going on with Durham, that he never left Lord Grey, 
tormented his heart out, and made him so ill and irritable 
that he could not sleep. Durham wanted to be Minister for 
Foreign Affairs. 

December 7th. — Parliament opened yesterday ; not a bad 
speech, though wordy and ill- written. There was an over- 
sight in the Address, which was corrected in both Houses by 
Peel and Lord Harrowby, but not taken as an amendment. 
Lord Grey begged it might be inserted in Lord Camperdown's 
address, which was done. It was about the King of 
Holland and the treaty. The Address says that they rejoice 
at the treaty, whereas there is none at present. Lord 
Lyttelton made a very foolish speech, and was very well cut 
up by Lord Harrowby, and Peel spoke well in the other 
House. 

December 8th. — At Court yesterday to swear in Erskine, 1 
Brougham's new Chief Judge in Bankruptcy and Privy 
Councillor. The Chancellor is in a great rage with me. There 
is an appeal to the Privy Council from a judgment of his 
(in which he was wrong), the first appeal of the kind for above 
a hundred years ; 2 I told him it was ready to be heard, and 
begged to know if he had any wish as to who should be 
summoned to hear it. He said very tartly, ' Of course I shall 

1 [Itight Hon. Thomas Erskine, a son of Lord Chancellor Erskine, Chief 
Judge in Bankruptcy, and afterwards a Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas.] 

2 [It was an Appeal in Lunacy. No other appeals save in Lunacy lie 
from the Court of Chancery to the King in Council, and these are very rare- 
Drax r. (Jrosvenor is reported in Knapp's 'Privy Council Reports.'] 



224 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

have somebody to hear it with me.' I said, c Do you mean to 
hear it yourself, then? ' 'And pray why not? don't I hear 
appeals from myself every day in the House of Lords ? didn't 
you see that I could not hear a case the other day because 
Lord Lyndhurst was not there ? I have a right to hear it. 
I sit there as a Privy Councillor.' ' Oh,' I said, c you have 
certainly a right if you choose it.' 'You may rely upon it I 
shall do nothing unusual in the Privy Council,' and then he 
flounced off in high dudgeon. I told Lord Lansdowne after- 
wards, who said he should not allow it to be heard by him, 
and should make a point of summoning all the great law 
authorities of the Privy Council. This was the case of 
Drax v. Grosvenor, which excited great interest, in which 
Brougham tried to play all sorts of tricks to prevent his 
judgment being reversed, which tricks I managed to de- 
feat, and the judgment was reversed, as is described farther 
on. I never had the advantage of seeing the Chancellor 
before in his sulks, though he is by no means unfrequently 
in them, very particularly so this time last year, when he 
was revolving in his mind whether he should take the Great 
Seal, and when he thought he was ill-used, so Auckland told 
me. 

The cholera is on the decline at Sunderland, but in the 
meantime our trade will have been put under such restric- 
tions that the greatest embarrassments are inevitable. In- 
telligence is already come that the Manchester people have 
curtailed their orders, and many workmen will be out of 
work. Yesterday a deputation from Coventry came to 
Auckland, and desired a categorical answer as to whether 
Government meant to resume the prohibitory system, because 
if they would not the glove trade at Coventry would dis- 
charge their workmen. 

December 11th. — Yesterday Harrowby had an interview 
with Lord Grey, the result of which I do not know ; walked 
with Stuart (de Eothesay) in the morning, who had seen the 
Duke of Wellington the day before. I said I was afraid he 
was very obstinate. He said c No, he thought not, but that 
the Duke fancied Wharncliffe had gone too far. 5 



1831] THE SECOND REFORM BILL. 225 

To-morrow the Eeform Bill comes on. Some say that it 
will be as hotly disputed as ever, and that Peel's speeches in- 
dicate a bitterness undiminished, but this will not happen. It 
is clear that the general tone and temper of parties is softened, 
and though a great deal of management and discretion is 
necessary to accomplish anything like a decent compromise, 
the majority of both parties are earnestly desirous of bring- 
ing the business to an end by any means. What has 
already taken place between the Government and Wharn- 
cliffe and Harrowby has certainly smoothed the way, and 
removed much of that feeling of asperity which before ex- 
isted. The press, too, is less violent, the ' Morning Herald ' 
openly preaching a compromise, and the c Times ' taking that 
sort of sweep which, if it does not indicate a change, shows 
a disposition to take such a position as may enable it to adopt 
any course. 

In the evening. — Called on Lord Bathurst in the morn- 
ing ; met him going out, and stopped to talk to him. He 
knew of the meeting in Downing Street ; that Lords Har- 
rowby, Wharncliffe, and Chandos were to meet the Chancellor 
and Lords Althorp and Grey ; that Chandos had gone to 
Brighton, ostensibly to talk to the King about the West 
Indies, but had taken the opportunity to throw in something 
on the topic of Eeform ; that the King desired him to speak 
to Palmerston, and allowed him to say that he did so by his 
orders. (The King, it seems, knows nothing of what is going 
on, for he reads no newspapers and the Household tell him 
nothing.) Accordingly Chandos did speak to Palmerston, 
and the result was a note to him, begging these three would 
meet the three Ministers above mentioned. Lady Harrowby 
told me that they went. Brougham did not arrive till the 
conference was nearly over. There was an abundant in- 
terchange of civilities, but nothing concluded, the Ministers 
declining every proposition that Lord Harrowby made to 
them, though Lord Grey owned that they did not ask for 
anything which involved an abandonment of the principle of 
the Bill. They are, then, not a bit nearer an accommodation 
than they were before. 

VOL. II. Q 



226 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

George Bentinck told me this evening of a scene which had 
been related to him by the Duke of Richmond, that lately took 
place at a Cabinet dinner ; it was very soon after Durham's 
return from abroad. He was furious at the negotiations and 
question of compromise. Lord Grey is always the object of 
his rage and impertinence, because he is the only person 
whom he dares attack. After dinner he made a violent sortie 
on Lord Grey (it was at Althorp's), said he would be eternally 
disgraced if he suffered any alterations to be made in this 
Bill, that he was a betrayer of the cause, and, amongst 
other things, reproached him with having kept him in town 
on account of this Bill in the summer, ' and thereby having 
been the cause of the death of his son.' Richmond said in 
his life he never witnessed so painful a scene, or one which 
excited such disgust and indignation in every member of the 
Cabinet. Lord Grey was ready to burst into tears, said he 
would much rather work in the coal-mines than be subject 
to such attacks, on which the other muttered, 'and you 
might do worse,' or some such words. After this Durham 
got up and left the room. Lord Grey very soon retired too, 
when the other Ministers discussed this extraordinary scene, 
and considered what steps they ought to take. They thought 
at first that they should require Durham to make a public 
apology (i.e. before all of them) to Lord Grey for his imperti- 
nence, which they deemed due to them as he was their head, 
and to Althorp as having occurred in his house, but as 
they thought it was quite certain that Durham would resign 
the next morning, and that Lord Grey might be pained at 
another scene, they forbore to exact this. However, Durham 
did not resign ; he absented himself for some days from the 
Cabinet, at last returned as if nothing had happened, and 
there he goes on as usual. But they are so thoroughly dis- 
gusted, and resolved to oppose him, that his influence is 
greatly impaired. Still, his power of mischief and annoy- 
ance is considerable. Lord Grey succumbs to him, and they 
say in spite of his behaviour is very much attached to him, 
though so incessantly worried that his health visibly suffers 
by his presence. There is nothing in which he . does not 



1831] CONFESSION OF A BODY-SNATCHER. 227 

meddle. The Reform Bill he had a principal hand in con- 
cocting-, and he fancies himself the only man competent to 
manage our foreign relations. Melbourne, who was present 
at this scene, said, c If I had been Lord Grey, I would have 
knocked him down.' 

December 13th. — Lord John Russell brought on his Bill last 
night in a very feeble speech. A great change is apparent 
since the last Bill ; the House was less full, and a softened 
and subdued state of temper and feeling was evinced. Peel 
made an able and a bitter speech, though perhaps not a very 
judicious one. There are various alterations in the Bill ;. 
enough to prove that it was at least wise to throw out the 
last. Althorp, who answered Peel, acknowledged that if the 
old Bill had been opposed in its earliest stage it never could 
have been brought forward again, or made an avowal to 
that effect. In fact, Peel is now aware (as everybody else is) 
of the enormous fault that was committed in not throwing it 
out at once, before the press had time to operate, and rouse 
the country to the pitch of madness it did. On what trifles 
turn the destinies of nations ! William Bankes told me last 
night that Peel owned this to him ; said that he had earnestly 
desired to do so, but had been turned from his purpose by 
Granville Somerset ! And why ? Because he (in the expect- 
ation of a dissolution) must have voted against him, he said,. 
in order to save his popularity in his own county. 

Met Melbourne at Lord Holland's ; they were talking of 
a reported confession to a great extent of murders, which is 
said to have been begun and not finished, by the Burkers, or 
by one of them. Melbourne said it was true, that he began the 
confession about the murder of a black man to a Dissenting 
clergyman, but was interrupted by the ordinary. Two of a 
trade could not agree, and the man of the Established 
Church preferred that the criminal should die unconfessed, 
and the public uninformed, rather than the Dissenter should 
extract the truth. Since writing this I see Hunt put a 
question to George Lamb on this point, and he replied that 
he knew nothing of any other confession, which is not true. 
I have heard, but on no authority, that some surgeons are 

Q 2 



■228 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

so disagreeably implicated that they choose to conceal these 
horrors. 

December 14th. — People generally are mightily satisfied 
at the tone of the discussion the other night, and, what is of 
vast importance, the press has adopted a moderate and con- 
ciliatory tone, even the 'Times,' which is now all for com- 
promise. It is clear as daylight that the Government will 
consent to anything which leaves untouched the great 
principles of the Bill, and the country desires to see the 
question settled, and, if possible, rest from this eternal 
excitement. 

December 20th. — The second reading of the Eeform Bill 
was carried at one o'clock on Saturday night by a majority 
of two to one, and ended very triumphantly for Ministers, 
who are proportionately elated, and their opponents equally 
depressed. Croker had made a very clever speech on Frida}% 
with quotations from Hume, and much reasoning upon them. 
Hobhouse detected several inaccuracies, and gave his dis- 
covery to Stanley, who worked it up in a crushing attack 
upon Croker. It is by far the best speech Stanley ever 
made, and so good as to raise him immeasurably in the 
House. Lord Grey said it placed him at the very top of 
the House of Commons, without a rival, which perhaps is 
jumping to rather too hasty a conclusion. He shone the more 
from Peel's making a very poor exhibition. He had been so 
nettled by Macaulay's sarcasms the night before on his ter- 
giversation, that he went into the whole history of the Catholic 
question and his conduct on that occasion, which, besides 
savouring of that egotism with which he is so much and 
justly reproached, was uncalled for and out of place. The 
rest of his speech was not so good as usual, and he did not 
attempt to answer Stanley. 



1832] PANSHANGER. 229 

1832. 

Panshanger, January 1st. — Distress seems to increase 
hereabouts, and crime with it. Methodism and saintship 
increase too. The people of this house are examples of the 
religion of the fashionable world, and the charity of natural 
benevolence, which the world has not spoiled. Lady Cowper 
and her family go to church, but scandalise the congregation 
by always arriving half an hour too late. The hour matters 
not ; if it began at nine, or ten, or twelve, or one o'clock, it- 
would be the same thing ; they are never ready, and always 
late, but they go. Lord Cowper never goes at all ; but he em- 
ploys multitudes of labourers, is ready to sanction any and 
every measure which can contribute to the comfort and happi- 
ness of the peasantry. Lady Cowper and her daughters inspect 
personally the cottages and condition of the poor. They 
visit, enquire, and give; they distribute flannel, medicines, 
money, and they talk to and are kind to them, so that the 
result is a perpetual stream flowing from a real fountain of 
benevolence, which waters all the country round and gladdens 
the hearts of the peasantry, and attaches them to those from 
whom it emanates. 

Panshanger, January 6th. — Talleyrand, Dino, Palmers- 
ton, Esterhazy, came yesterday and went away to-day — 
that is, the two first and the Seftons did. There has been 
another contest in the Cabinet about the Peers, which has 
ended in a sort of compromise, and five are to be made 
directly, two new ones and three eldest sons called up. Old 
Talleyrand came half-dead from the conferences, which 
have been incessant these few days, owing to the Emperor of 
Russia's refusal to ratify the treaty and the differences about 
the Belgian fortresses. One conference lasted eleven hours 
and a quarter, and finished at four o'clock in the morning. 

Gorhambury, January 7th. — Came here to-day. Berkeley 
Paget and Lushington ; nobody else. Had a conversation 
with Lady C. before I came away; between Palmerston, 
Frederick Lamb, and Melbourne she knows everything, and 
is a furious anti-Reformer. The upshot of the matter is this : 



230 KEIG-N OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

the question about the Peers is still under discussion ; 
Lord Grey and the ultra party want to make a dozen now, 
the others want only to yield five or six. Lord Grey wrote 
to Palmerston saying the King had received his proposition 
{about the Peers) very well, but desired to have his reasons 
in writing, and to-day at twelve there was to be another 
Cabinet on the subject, in order probably that the c reasons ' 
might go down by the post. The moderate party in the 
Cabinet consists of Lansdowne, Richmond, Palmerston, 
Melbourne, and Stanley. Palmerston and Melbourne, par- 
ticularly the latter, are now heartily ashamed of the part 
they have taken about Reform. They detest and abhor the 
whole thing, and they find themselves unable to cope with 
the violent party, and consequently implicated in a continued 
series of measures which they disapprove ; and they do not 
know what to do, whether to stay in and fight this unequal 
battle or resign. I told her that nothing could justify their 
conduct, and their excuses were good for nothing ; but that 
there was no use in resigning now. They might still do 
some good in the Cabinet ; they could do none out of it. In 
fact, Durham and the most violent members of the Cabinet 
would gladly drive Palmerston and Melbourne to resign if 
they could keep Stanley, who is alone of importance of that 
squad ; but he is of such weight, from his position in the House 
of Commons, that if he can be prevailed upon to be staunch, 
and to hold out with the moderates against the ultras, the 
former will probably prevail. Durham wants to be Minister 
for Foreign Affairs, and would plague Lord Grey till he gave 
him the seals, unless his other colleagues put a veto upon the 
appointment. But the anxiety of the Reformers to make Peers 
has not reference to the Reform Bill alone ; they undoubtedly 
look further, and knowing their own weakness in the House 
of Lords, they want to secure a permanent force, which may 
make them stronger than their antagonists in that House. 
Otherwise they would not be so averse to all questions of 
conciliation, express their disbelief in conversions, and 
trumpet forth their conviction that any individual of the 
late majority will vote just the same way again. The earnest 



1832] EFFORTS OF THE MODERATE PAETY. 231 

desire of the moderate party in the Cabinet is that those 
who will vote for the second reading shall make haste to 
declare their intention, and I have written to Lady Harrowby 
to encleavonr to get Lord Harrowby to take some snch step. 
I had already written to De Eos, urging him to speak to 
Wharncliffe, and get him to take an opportunity of giving 
the King to understand that the necessity for a creation of 
Peers is by no means so urgent as his Ministers would have 
him believe. 

Panshanger, January 13th. — Returned here yesterday ; 
found Melbourne, Lamb, the Lievens, the Haddingtons, Lut- 
trell, the Ashleys, John Ashley, and L:by. While I was at 
Gorhambury I determined to write to Wharncliffe and urge 
him to speak to the King, and accordingly I did so. I re- 
ceived a letter from him saying that De Eos had already 
spoken to him, that he had had a conversation with Sir Her- 
bert Taylor, which he had desired him to repeat to the King 
and to Lord Grey, that he had intended to leave the matter 
there, but in consequence of my letter he should ask for an 
audience. This morning I have heard again from him. He 
saw the King, and was with him an hour ; put his Majesty in 
possession of his sentiments, and told him there would be no 
necessity for creating Peers if the Government would be 
conciliatory and moderate in the Committee of the House 
of Commons ; he promised to tell me the particulars of this 
interview when we meet. 

Last night Frederick Lamb told me that Lord Grey had 
sent word to Melbourne of what Wharncliffe had said to Sir 
Herbert Taylor, and Lord Grey assumed the tenour of Wharn- 
cliffe's language to have been merely an advice to the King not 
to make Peers, whereas all I suggested to him was to explain 
to the King that the creation was not necessary for the reasons 
which have been assigned to his Majesty by his Ministers, 
viz., the intention of all who voted against the second reading 
last year to vote against it this. In the meantime the dispute 
has been going on in the Cabinet, time has been gained, and 
several incidents have made a sort of cumulative impression. 
There is a petition to the King, got up by Lord Verulam and 



232 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

Lord Salisbury, which is in fact a moderate Reform manifesto. 
It has been numerously signed, and Yerulam is going to 
Brighton to present it. I have been labouring to persuade him 
to make up his mind to vote for the second reading, and to tell 
the King that such is his intention, which .he has promised 
me he will. When I had obtained this promise from him I 
wrote word to Lady Cowper, telling her at the same time that 
Lord Harris (I had heard) would vote for the second reading, 
and this letter she imparted to Melbourne, who stated the 
fact in the Cabinet, where it made a considerable impression. 
All such circumstances serve to supply arms to the moderate 
party. 

This morning Melbourne went up to another Cabinet, 
armed with another fact with which I supplied him. Lord 
Craven declared at his own table that if the Government 
made Peers lie would not vote with them, and if he was sent 
for he should reply that as they could create Peers so easily 
they might do without him. All such circumstances as these, 
I find, are considered of great importance, and are made 
available for the purpose of fighting the battle in the Cabinet. 
As to Lord Grey, it is exceedingly difficult to understand his 
real sentiments, and to reconcile his present conduct with, 
the general tenour of his former professions ; that he was 
averse to the adoption of so violent a measure I have no 
doubt — his pride and aristocratic principles would naturally 
make him so — but he is easily governed, constantly yielding 
to violence and intimidation, and it is not unlikely that the 
pertinacity of those about him, the interests of his party, and 
the prolongation of his power may induce him to sacrifice 
his natural feelings and opinions. It is very probable that, 
although he may have allowed himself to be at the head of 
those who are for the creation, he may have such misgivings 
and scruples as may prevent his carrying that point with 
the high hand and in the summary way which he might do. 

January Ihth. — This morning Frederick Lamb showed me 
a letter he had got from Melbourne to this effect : c that they 
had resolved to make no Peers at all at present; that to 
make a few would be regarded as a menace, and be as bad as 



1832] WHAENCLIFFE'S INTERVIEW WITH THE KING. 233 

if they made a great many ; but that as many as would be 
necessary to carry the Bill would be made, if it was even- 
tually found that it must be so; 5 he added 'it only remained 
for people to come forward and declare their intention of 
supporting the second reading.' This is certainly a great 
victory, and I do believe mainly attributable to our exertions, 
to the spirit we have infused into Melbourne himself, and 
the use we have made of Wharncliffe and Yerulam, and 
the different little circumstances we have brought to bear 
upon the discussion. What now remains is the most 
difficult, but I shall do all I can to engage Peers to take a 
moderate determination and to declare it. Lamb told me 
that the King has an aversion to making a few Peers, 
that he has said he would rather make twenty-five than 
fiYe, that whatever he must make he should like to make 
at once, and not to have to return to it. Anyhow, time is 
gained, and a victory for the moment. 

London, January 20th. — Came up on Monday last. I 
have been changing my house, and so occupied that I have 
not had time to write. Wharncliffe came to town on Wed- 
nesday, and came straight to my office to give me an account 
of his interview with the King, in which it appears as if he 
had said much about what he ought, and no more. He told his 
Majesty that the reports which had been circulated as to the 
disposition and intentions of himself and his friends, and the 
argument for the necessity of making Peers, which he under- 
stood to have been founded on these reports, had compelled 
him to ask for this audience, that he Avished to explain 
to his Majesty that he (Lord Wharncliffe) had no intention 
of opposing the second reading of the Reform Bill as he 
had done before, that he had reason to believe that many 
others would adopt the same course, and if Ministers showed 
a moderate and conciliating disposition in the House of 
Commons, he was persuaded they would have no difficulty 
in carrying the second reading in the House of Lords. He 
then implored the King well to consider the consequences of 
such a coup d'etat as this creation of Peers would be ; to look 
at what had happened in France, and to bear in mind that 



234 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

if this was done for one purpose, and by one Government, 
the necessity would infallibly arise of repeating it again 
by others, or for other objects. He was with the King an 
hour dilating upon this theme. The King was extremely 
kind, heard him with great patience, and paid him many 
compliments, and when he took leave told him that he was 
extremely glad to have had this conversation with him. Sir 
Herbert Taylor gave Lord Wharncliffe to understand that he 
had made an impression, only impressions on the mind of 
the King are impressions on sand. However, from Taylor's 
cautious hints to him to persevere, it is likely that he did do 
good. He is himself persuaded that his audience principally 
produced the delay in the creation of Peers. 

In the meantime he was not idle at Brighton. Lord Ailes- 
bury, who saw the King, consulted Wharncliffe, and agreed 
at last to tell the King that his sentiments were the same as 
those which Lord Wharncliffe had expressed to him, and 
Lord Kinnoull and Lord Gage have promised him their 
proxies. 

Yesterday morning he came to me again, very de- 
sponding. He had found Harrowby in a state of despair, 
uncertain what he should do, and looking upon the game as 
lost, and he had been with the Duke of Wellington, who was 
impracticably obstinate, declaring that nothing should pre- 
vent his opposing a Bill which he believed in his conscience 
to be pregnant with certain ruin to the country ; that he did 
not care to be a great man (he meant by this expression a 
man of great wealth and station), and that he could con- 
tentedly sink into any station that circumstances might let 
him down to, but he never would consent to be a party 
directly or indirectly to such a measure as this, and, feeling 
as he did, he was resolved to do his utmost to throw it out, 
without regard to consequences. Wharncliffe said he was 
quite in despair, for that he knew the Duke's great influence, 
and that if he and Harrowby endeavoured to form a party 
against his views, they had no chance of making one suffi- 
ciently strong to cope with him. He spoke with great and 
rather unusual modesty of himself, and of his inadequacy for 



1832] THE WAVERERS AND WELLINGTON. 235 

this purpose ; that Harrowby might do more, and would have 
greater influence, but that he was so undecided and so with- 
out heart and spirit that he would not bestir himself. 
However, he acknowledged that nothing else was left to be 
done. 

In the evening went to Lady Harrowby's, where I found 
him and Lord Haddington. We stayed there till near two, 
after which Wharncliffe and I walked up and down Berkeley 
Square. He was in much better spirits, having had a long 
conversation with these two Lords, both of whom he said 
were now resolved to sail along with him, and he contem- 
plates a regular and declared separation from the Duke v/pon 
this question. In the morning he had seen Lyndhurst, who 
appeared very undecided, and (Wharncliffe was apprehensive) 
rather leaning towards the Duke, but I endeavoured to per- 
suade him that Lyndhurst was quite sure to adopt upon con- 
sideration the line which appeared most conducive to his 
own interest and importance, that he had always a hankering 
after being well with Lord Grey and the Whigs, and I well 
remembered when the late Government was broken up he 
had expressed himself in very unmeasured terms about the 
Duke's blunders, and the impossibility of his ever again being 
Prime Minister ; that with him consistency, character, and 
high feelings of honour and patriotism were secondary consi- 
derations; that he relied upon his great talents and his 
capacity to render himself necessary to an Administration ; 
that it was not probable he would like to throw himself (even 
to please the Duke) into an opposition to the earnest desire 
which the great mass of the community felt to have the 
question settled ; and that both for him and themselves much 
of the difficulty of separating themselves from the Duke 
might be avoided by the manner in which it was done. I 
entreated him to use towards the Duke every sort of frankness 
and candour, and to express regret at the necessity of taking 
a different line, together with an acknowledgment of the 
purity of the Duke's motives ; and if this is done, and if other 
people are made to understand that they can separate from 
the Duke on this occasion without offending or quarrelling 



236 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVI. 

with him, or throwing off the allegiance to him as their 
political leader, many will be inclined to do so ; besides, it is 
of vital importance, if they do get the Bill into Committee, 
to secure the concurrence of the Duke and his adherents in 
dealing with the details of it, which can only be effected by 
keeping him in good humour. On the whole the thing looks 
as well as such a thing can look. 



237 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

Measures for carrying the Second Reading of the Reform Bill in the House 
of Lords — The Party of the Waverers — The Russo-Dutch Loan — Resist- 
ance of the Tory Peers — Lord Melbourne's Views on the Government — 
Macaulay at Holland House — Reluctance of the Government to create 
p eers — Duke of Wellington intractable — Peel's Despondency — Lord 
Grev on the Measures of Conciliation — Lord Wharncliffe sees the King 
— Prospects of the "Waverers — Conversations with Lord Melbourne and 
Lord Palmerston — Duke of Richmond on the Creation of Peers— Inter- 
view of Lord Grey with the Waverers — Minute drawn up — Bethnal 
Green — The Archbishop of Canterbury vacillates — Violence of Extreme 
Parties — Princess Lieven's Journal — Lord Holland for making Peers — 
Irish National Education — Seizure of Ancona— Reform Bill passes the 
House of Commons — Lord Dudley's Madness — Debate in the Lords. 

January 24th. — Yesterday morning Frederick Lamb came 
to me and told me that the question of the Peers was again in 
agitation, that the King had agreed to make as many as they 
pleased, and had understood Wharncliffe's conversation with 
his Majesty not to have contained any distinct assurance that 
he would vote for the second reading of the Bill. Our party 
in the Cabinet still fight the battle, however, and Stanley (on 
whom all depends) is said to be firm, but circumstances may 
compel them to give way, and Lord Grey (who is suspected 
to have in his heart many misgivings as to this measure), 
when left to Durham and Co., yields everything. Under 
these circumstances I went to Wharncliffe last night, to per- 
suade him to declare his intentions without loss of time. He 
owned that he had not pledged himself to the King, and he 
was frightened to death at the idea of taking this step, lest 
it should give umbrage to the Tories, and he should find him- 
self without any support at all. We went, however, together 



238 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

to Grosvenor Square, and had a long conference with. 
Harrowby, whom I found equally undecided. 

In the meantime the Tories are full of activity and expect- 
ation, and Lord Aberdeen is going to bring on a motion 
about Belgium on Thursday, on which they expect to beat the 
Government, not comprehending that a greater evil could not 
occur, or a better excuse be afforded them for an immediate 
creation ; 'still they have got it into their heads that if they 
can beat the Government before the Reform Bill comes on they 
will force them to resign. I found Harrowby and Wharncliffe 
equally undecided as to the course they should adopt, the 
former clinging to the hope that the Peerage question was at 
last suspended, that Lord Grey was compunctious, the King 
reluctant, and so forth — Wharncliffe afraid of being aban- 
doned by those who are now disposed to consult and act with 
him, and indisposed to commit himself irretrievably in the 
House of Lords. After a long discussion I succeeded in per- 
suading them that the danger is imminent, that there is no 
other chance of avoiding it, and they agreed to hoist their 
standard, get what followers they can, and declare in the House 
for the second reading without loss of time. Harrowby said 
of himself that he was the worst person in the world to con- 
ciliate and be civil, which is true enough, but he has a high 
reputation, and his opinion is of immense value. Until they 
declare themselves not a step will be made, and if the} 7- 
cannot gain adherents, why the matter is at an end ; 
while if their example be followed, there is still a chance of 
averting the climax of all evils, the swamping the House 
of Lords and the permanent establishment of the power 
of the present Government. Wharncliffe is to go to the 
Duke of Wellington to-day, to entreat him not to let his 
party divide on Aberdeen's motion on Thursday, and Har- 
rowby will go to the Archbishop to invite his adhesion to 
their party. I am very doubtful what success to augur from 
this, but it is the only chance, and though the bulk of the 
Tory Peers are j>rejudiced, obstinate, and stupid to the last 
degree, there are scattered amongst them men of more 
rational views and more moderate dispositions. Sandon 



1832] PLANS OF CONCILIATION. 239 

came in while we were there, and expressed precisely the 
same opinion that I had been endeavouring to enforce upon 
them. He said that in the Honse of Commons, whence he 
was just come, the Government had refused to give way upon 
a very reasonable objection, without assigning any reason 
(the numbers in Schedule B), that this evinced an uncon- 
ciliatory spirit, which was very distressing to those who 
wished for a compromise, that Hobhouse came to him after 
the debate, and said how anxious he was they should come 
to some understanding, and act in a greater spirit of con- 
ciliation, and talked of a meeting of the moderate on either 
side, that his constituents were eager for a settlement, and by 
no means averse to concession, but that while Peel, Croker, 
and others persisted in the tone they had adopted, and 
in the sort of opposition they were pursuing, it was quite 
impossible for the Government to give way upon anything, 
or evince any disposition to make concessions. Sandon said 
he had no doubt whatever that if Peel had assumed a different 
tone at the beginning of the session the Government would 
have been more moderate, and mutual concessions might 
have been feasible even in the House of Commons. Hob- 
house, however, said that the alterations, whatever they 
might be (and he owned that he should like some), would 
come with a better grace in the House of Lords, and this is 
what I have all along thought. O'Connell arrived yesterday, 
took his seat, and announced his intention of supporting 
Government at any rate. All the Irish members do the 
same, and this great body, that everyone expected would 
display hostility to the Bill, have formed themselves into a 
phalanx, and will carry it through any difficulties by their 
compactness and the regularity of their attendance. 

January 25th. — We met at Lord Harrowby's last night 
— Wharncliffe, Harrowby, Haddington, and Sandon — and I 
found their minds were quite made up. Wharncliffe is to 
present a petition from Hull, and to take that opportunity 
of making his declaration, and the other two are to support 
him. Wharncliffe saw the Bishop of London in the morning, 
who is decided the same way, and he asked Lord Devon, 



240 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

who knows the House of Lords very well, if he thought, in 
the event of their raising the standard of moderate Reform, 
that they would have adherents, to which he replied he was 
convinced they would. Lord Harrowby saw the Archbishop, 
who would not pledge himself, but appeared well disposed ; 
and altogether they think they can count upon nine bishops. 
Wharncliffe spoke to the Duke of Wellington about Lord 
Aberdeen's motion, and represented all the impolicy of it at 
this moment, and the connection it might have with the Peer- 
age question ; to which he only replied by enlarging on 'the 
importance of the Belgic question,' either unable or unwilling 
to embrace this measure in its complex relations, and never 
perceiving that the country cares not a straw about Belgium 
or anything but Reform, though they may begin to care 
about such things when this question is settled. Haddington 
also went to Aberdeen, who would hear nothing ; but he 
and the Duke severally promised to S}3eak to one another. 
The question last night was whether Wharncliffe should say 
his say directly, or wait (as he wishes to do) for a few days. 
The decision of this he referred to me, and I have referred 
it to Melbourne, to whom T have communicated what has 
passed. 

News came yesterday that the cholera had got within 
three miles of Edinburgh, and to show the fallacy of any 
theory about it, and the inutility of the prescribed precau- 
tions, at one place (Newport, I think) one person in five of 
the whole population was attacked, though there was no 
lack of diet, warmth, and clothing for the poor. This 
disease escapes from all speculation, so partial and eccentric 
is its character. 

January 29th. — There were two divisions on Thursday 
night last — in the House of Lords on the Belgian question, 
and in the House of Commons on the Russian Loan. Har- 
rowby, Wharncliffe, and Haddington stayed away; Lynd- 
hurst voted. Only two bishops, Durham and Killaloe. 
Ministers had a majority of thirty-seven, for Aberdeen and 
the Duke persisted in bringing on the question and dividing 
upon it. The former spoke nearly three hours, and far 



1832] DISCREDIT OF MINISTERS. 241 

better than ever lie had done before ; the Duke was prosy. 
In the other House the Government had not a shadow of a 
case ; their law officers, Home and Denman, displayed an 
ignorance and stupidity which were quite ludicrous, and 
nothing saved them from defeat but a good speech at the 
end from Palmerston, and their remonstrances to their friends 
that unless they carried it they must resign. Not a soul 
defends them, and they are particularly blamed for their 
folly in not coming to Parliament at once, by which they 
might have avoided the scrape. 1 They had only a majority 
of twenty-four. They were equally disgusted with both 
these divisions, both plainly showing that they have little 
power (independently of the Eeform question) in either 
House. To be sure the case in the House of Commons was 
a wretched one, but in the House of Lords there was nothing 
to justify a vote of censure on Government, to which Aber- 
deen's motion was tantamount. But while they had a 
majority which was respectable enough to make it impossible 
to propose making Peers on that account, it was so small 
that they see clearly what they have to expect hereafter 
from such a House of Lords, and accordingly their adherents 
have thrown off the mask. Sefton called on me the day 
after, and said it was ridiculous to go on in this way, that 
the Tories had had possession of the Government so many 
years, and the power of making so many Peers, that no 
Whip; or other Ministry could stand without a fresh creation 
to redress the balance. 

After having, as I supposed, settled everything with 
Wharncliffe about his declaration, I got a letter from him 
yesterday (from Brighton), saying he thought it would be 
premature, and wished to put it off till the first reading 
of the Bill in the House of Lords. I took his letter to 
Melbourne, and told him I was all against the delay. He 

1 [For a more particular account of the question of the Russo-Dutch 
Loan, see infra, p. 244. It has since been universally admitted that the 
conduct of the Government was wise and honourable, and that the separa- 
tion of Holland and Belgium did not exonerate Great Britain from a finan- 
cial engagement to foreign Powers.] 
VOL. II. R 



242 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

said it was no doubt desirable they should get as many 
adherents as they can, and if the delay would enable them 
to do so it might be better, but they must not imagine 
Government was satisfied with the division in the House of 
Lords. However, the question of Peers seems not to be under 
discussion at this moment, though it is perpetually revived. 
In the evening I went to Harrowby's and showed him 
Wharncliffe's letter. He concurred in the expediency of 
delay, but without convincing me. He showed me a letter, 
and a very good one, he has written to Lord Talbot, ex- 
plaining his views, and inviting his concurrence, and of this 
he has sent copies to other Peers, whom he thinks it possible 
he may influence. The question of time and manner is to 
be reserved for future discussion. 

'February 2nd. — Met Frederick Lamb at dinner to talk 
over the state of affairs before he goes to Vienna. What he 
wishes for is the expulsion of this Government, and the for- 
mation of a moderate one taken from all parties. Eeceived 
another letter from Wharncliffe yesterday, in which he stated 
that he had communicated to the Duke of Wellington his 
intention of supporting the second reading, and asked if the 
Duke would support his amendments in Committee. In the 
meantime I wrote to Harrowby, begging he would communi- 
cate with Lord Carnarvon and the Duke of Buckingham. 
They keep doubting and fearing about who will or will not join 
them, but do not stir a step. George Bentinck told me that 
Lord Holland said to the Duke of Richmond the other day 
6 that he had heard a declaration was in agitation ; that 
nothing could be more unfortunate at this moment, as it 
would make it very difficult to create fifty Peers.' In the 
meantime a difficulty is likely to arise from another source, 
and the Government to derive strength from their very weak- 
ness. Robert Clive (who is a moderate Tory) called on me 
the other day, and when (after expressing his anxiety that 
the question should be settled) I asked him whether such a 
declaration would meet with much success, said he thought 
that it would have done so a fortnight ago, but that the ex- 
treme discredit into which Ministers were fallen would now 
operate as a reason against supporting them in any stage of 



/ 

1832] SIR HENRY PARNELL. 243 

the business, and offered so good a chance of expelling them 
altogether that people would be anxious to try it. Still it 
must be so obvious that it would be next to impossible to 
make a G-overnment now, that it is to be hoped all but the 
most violent will feel it. Herries indeed told somebody that 
he had no doubt the Tories could make a Government, and 
that on a dissolution they would get a Parliament that would 
support them. Parnell ! has been turned out for not voting on 
the Russian Loan affair, and Hobhouse appointed in his place. 
Tennyson resigned from ill health. Parnell was properly 
enough turned out, and he is a good riddance, but it is not 
the same thing as turning people out on Reform. He wrote an 
excellent book on finance, but he was a very bad Secretary 
at War, a rash economical innovator, and a bad man of busi- 
ness in its details. After waiting till the last moment for 
the arrival of the Russian ratification, the French and 
English signed the Belgian treaty alone, and the others are 
to sign after as their powers arrive. 

February 4th. — Called on Lord Harrowby in the morning ; 
found him in very bad spirits, as well he might, for to all 
the invitations he had written to Peers he had received 
either refusals or no reply, so that he augurs ill of their 
attempt. Carnarvon and Talbot refused; these besotted, 
predestinated Tories ivill follow the Duke ; the Duke will 
oppose all Reform because he said he would. Those who are 
inclined will not avow their conversion to moderate principles,, 
and so they will go on, waiting and staring at one another, 
till one fine day the Peers will come out in the ( Gazette/ 
The thing looks ill. Dined with Lord Holland. Melbourne, 
who was there, asked me if I had heard from Wharncliffe, 
but I did not tell him of Lord Harrowby's refusals. 

1 [Sir Henry Parnell had been appointed Secretary at War on the for- 
mation of Lord Grey's Ministry. lie had exasperated his colleagues by 
entering upon an unauthorised negotiation with the French Post Office, with- 
out the knowledge of the Duke of Ptichmond, then Postmaster-General, 
and by encouraging Joseph Hume to bring on a motion against the Post 
( )ilice. 1 lume brought this letter to the Duke of Richmond, who was indig- 
nant and laid the whole matter before Lord Grey, who behaved very well 
about it. Parnell narrowly escaped dismissal at that time, and on his next 
sign of disaffection to the Government he was turned out of office.] 

B 2 



244 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

Falck dined there, and in conversation about the Eussian 
Loan he told us the original history of it. The Emperor of 
Enssia had borrowed ninety millions of florins, and when his 
concurrence and support were desired to the new kingdom of 
the Netherlands he proposed in return that the King of Hol- 
land should take this debt off his hands. The King said he 
would gladly meet his wishes, but could not begin by making 
himself unpopular with his new subjects and saddling them 
with this debt. Whereupon England interposed, and an ar- 
rangement was made [in 1815] by which Eussia, England, 
and the King of the Netherlands divided the debt into three 
equal shares, each taking one. With reference to the argu- 
ment that the countries being divided we ought no longer to 
pay our share, Falck said the King of the Netherlands had not 
refused to pay on those grounds, that he had only (with refer- 
ence to his heavy expenses) expressed his present inability 
and asked for time, which the Emperor of Eussia had agreed 
to. What he meant was that the kingdoms were not as yet 
de jure separated, and that the casus had not yet arrived. 
This, however, is nothing to the purpose, for the King and the 
Emperor understand one another very well, and it is not likely 
that the King should do anything to supply us with a motive 
or a pretext for refusing our quota to his imperial ally. 
Brougham's speech on the Eussian Loan everybody agrees to 
have been super-excellent — c a continued syllogism from the 
beginning to the end.' Lord Holland said, and the Duke of 
Wellington (I am told) declared, it was the best speech he 
had ever heard. 

February 6th. — Met Melbourne yesterday evening, and 
turned back and walked with him ; talked over the state of 
affairs. He said Government were very much annoyed at 
their division in the House of Commons, though Brougham 
had in some measure repaired that disaster in the House of 
Lords ; that it became more difficult to resist making Peers 
as Government exhibited greater weakness. I told him the 
Tories were so unmanageable because they wished to drive 
out the Government, and thought they could. Dined at the 
Sheriff's dinner-^not unpleasant — and went in the evening 



1832] MACAULAY AT HOLLAND HOUSE. 245 

to Lady Harrowby; Lord Harrowby gone to his brothers'. 
Melbourne had told me that he had spoken to Haddington, 
and I found Haddington had given a report of what he said 
snch as I am sure Melbourne did not mean to convey ; the 
upshot of which was that there was only one man in the 
Cabinet who wished to make Peers, that there was no im- 
mediate danger, and that it would do more harm than 
good if they declared themselves without a good number of 
adherents. Called this morning on Lady C, who said that 
Melbourne was in fact very much annoyed at his position, 
wanted caradere, was wretched at having been led so far, 
and tossed backwards and forwards between opposite senti- 
ments and feelings ; that he thought the Government very 
weak, and that they would not stand, and in fact that he did 
not desire they should remain in, but the contrary. And 
this is Frederick's opinion too, who has great influence over 
him, while at the same time he is rather jealous of Frede- 
rick. 

February 6th. — Dined yesterday with Lord Holland ; came 
very late, and found a vacant place between Sir George 
Eobinson and a common-looking man in black. As soon as 
I had time to look at my neighbour, I began to speculate (as 
one usually does) as to who he might be, and as he did not 
for some time open his lips except to eat, I settled that he 
was some obscure man of letters or of medicine, perhaps a 
cholera doctor. In a short time the conversation turned 
upon early and late education, and Lord Holland said he 
had always remarked that self-educated men were peculiarly 
conceited and arrogant, and apt to look down upon the 
generality of mankind, from their being ignorant of how much 
other people knew; not having been at public schools, they are 
uninformed of the course of general education. My neighbour 
observed that he thought the most remarkable example of 
self-education was that of Alfieri, who had reached the age 
of thirty without having acquired any accomplishment save 
that of driving, and who was so ignorant of his own language 
that he had to learn it like a child, beginning with element- 
ary books. Lord Holland quoted Julius Ca2sar and Scaliger 



246 EEIQN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

as examples of late education, said that the latter had been 
wounded, and that he had been married and commenced 
learning Greek the same day, when my neighbour remarked 
* that he supposed his learning Greek was not an instantaneous 
act like his marriage.' This remark, and the manner of it, 
gave me the notion that he was a dull fellow, for it came 
out in a way which bordered on the ridiculous, so as to excite 
something like a sneer. I was a little surprised to hear him 
continue the thread of conversation (from Scaliger's wound) 
and talk of Loyola having been wounded at Pampeluna. I 
wondered how he happened to know anything about Loyola's 
wound. Having thus settled my opinion, I went on eating 
my dinner, when Auckland, who was sitting opposite to me, 
addressed my neighbour, 6 Mr. Macaulay, will you drink a 
glass of wine ? ' I thought I should have dropped off my chair. 
It was Macaulay, the man I had been so long most curious 
to see and to hear, whose genius, eloquence, astonishing know- 
ledge, and diversified talents have excited my wonder and 
admiration for such a length of time, and here I had been 
sitting next to him, hearing him talk, and setting him down 
for a dull fellow. I felt as if he could have read my thoughts, 
and the perspiration burst from every pore of my face, and 
yet it was impossible not to be amused at the idea. It was 
not till Macaulay stood up that I was aware of all the 
vulgarity and ungainliness of his appearance ; not a ray of 
intellect beams from his countenance ; a lump of more or- 
dinary clay never enclosed a powerful mind and lively ima- 
gination. He had a cold and sore throat, the latter of which 
occasioned a constant contraction of the muscles of the 
thorax, making him appear as if in momentary danger of a 
fit. His manner struck me as not pleasing, but it was not 
assuming, unembarrassed, yet not easy, unpolished, yet not 
coarse ; there was no kind of usurpation of the conversation, 
no tenacity as to opinion or facts, no assumption of superior- 
ity, but the variety and extent of his information were soon 
apparent, for whatever subject was touched upon he evinced 
the utmost familiarity with it ; quotation, illustration, anec- 
dote, seemed ready in his hands for every topic. Primogeni- 



1832] RELUCTANCE TO MAKE PEERS. 247 

ture in this country, in others, and particularly in ancient 
Rome, was the principal topic, I think, but Macaulay was 
not certain what was the law of Rome, except that when a 
man died intestate his estate was divided|between his chil- 
dren. After dinner Talleyrand, and Madame de Dino came 
in. He was introduced to Talleyrand, who told him that he 
meant to go to the House of Commons on Tuesday, and that 
he hoped he would speak, 'qu'il avait entendu tous les 
grands orateurs, et il desirait a present entendre Monsieur 
Macaulay.' 

February 7th. — Called on Melbourne. He said he had 
not meant Haddington to understand that it^was desirable 
the declaration should be delayed ; on the contrary, that it 
was desirable Ministers should be informed as speedily as pos- 
sible of the intentions of our friends and of the force they 
can command, but that if only a few declared themselves, 
they would certainly be liable to the suspicion that they 
could not get adherents ; he added that every man in the 
Government (except one) was aware of the desperate nature 
of the step they were about to take (that man of course 
being Durham.) I told him that his communication to 
Haddington had to a certain degree had the effect of 
paralysing my exertions, and he owned it was imprudent. 
I was, however, extremely surprised to hear what he said 
about the Cabinet, and I asked him if it really was so, and 
that all the members of it were bond fide alarmed at, and 
averse to, the measure ; that I had always believed that, with 
the exception of those who were intimate^ with him, they all 
wanted the pretext in order to establish their power. He 
said no, they really all were conscious of the violence of the 
measure, and desirous of avoiding it ; that Lord Grey had 
been so from the beginning, but that Durham was always at 
him, and made him fall into his violent designs ; that it was 
' a reign of terror,' but that Durham could do with him what 
he pleased. What a picture of secret degradation and imbe- 
cility in the towering and apparently haughty Lord Grey ! I 
told Melbourne that it was important to gain time, that there 
was an appearance of a thaw among the 199, but that most 



248 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

of them were in the country; communications by letter 
were difficult and unsatisfactory ; that many were averse to 
breaking up the party or leaving the Duke — in short, from 
one cause or another doubtful and wavering ; that it was not 
to be expected they should at a moment's warning take this 
new line, in opposition to the opinions and conduct of their 
old leaders, and that when Lord Harrowby was exerting 
himself indefatigably to bring them to reason, and to render 
a measure unnecessary which in the opinion of the Cabinet 
itself was fraught with evil, it was fair and just to give him 
time to operate. He said this was very true, but that time 
was likewise required to execute the measure of a creation of 
Peers, that people must be invited, the patents made out, &c. 
We then parted. Downstairs was Rothschild the Jew 
waiting for him, and the valet de cliambre sweeping away a 
bonnet and a shawl. 

On my way from Melbourne called on Lord Harrowby, 
and read a variety of letters — answers from different Peers to 
his letters, Wharncliffe's correspondence with the Duke of 
Wellington, and Peel's answer to Lord Harrowby. Wharn- 
cliffe wrote a long and very conciliatory letter to the Duke, 
nearly to the effect of Lord Harrowby's circular, and contain- 
ing the same arguments, to which the Duke replied by a long 
letter, written evidently in a very ill humour, and such a 
galimatias as I never read, angry, ill expressed, and confused, 
and from which it was difficult to extract anything intelligible 
but this, 'that he was aware of the consequences of the 
course he should adopt himself,! and wished the House of 
Lords to adopt, viz., the same as last year, but that be those 
consequences what they might, the responsibility would not 
lie on his shoulders, but on those of the Government; he 
acknowledged that a creation of Peers would swamp the 
House of Lords, and, by so doing, destroy the Constitution, 
but the Government would be responsible, not he, for the ruin 
that would ensue; that he was aware some Reform was 
necessary (in so far departing from his former declaration of 
the 30th of November), but he would neither propose anything 
himself, nor take this measure, nor try and amend it. 5 In 
short, he will do nothing but talk nonsense, despair, and be 



1832] PEEL'S DESPONDENCY. 249 

obstinate, and then lie is hampered by declarations (from 
which he now sees himself that he must dissent), and obliged 
from causes connected with the Catholic question and the Test 
and Corporation Acts to attend more to the consistency of 
his own character than to the exigencies of the country, but 
with much more personal authority than anybody, and still 
blindly obeyed and followed by men many of whom take 
very rational and dispassionate views of the subject, but who 
still are resolved to sacrifice their own sense to his folly. He 
really has accomplished being a prophet in his own country, 
not from the sagacity of his predictions, but froni the blind 
worship of his devotees. 

PeePs letter, though arriving at the same conclusion, was 
in a very different style. It certainly was an able produc- 
tion, well expressed and plausibly argued, with temper and 
moderation. He owned that much was to be said on the 
side of the question which he does not espouse, but the 
reasons by which he says he is mainly governed are these : 
that it is of vital importance to preserve the consistency of 
the party to which we are to look for future safety, and that 
when this excitement has passed away the conduct of the 
anti-Beformers will have justice done to it. But there is a 
contradiction which pervades his argument, for he treats the 
subject as if all hope had vanished of saving the country, 
' desperat de republica,' and he does not promise himself pre- 
sent advantage from the firmness and consistency of the 
Tories, but taking it in connection with the folly and wicked- 
ness of the other party (who he is persuaded bitterly regret 
their own precipitate violence and folly), he expects it to 
prove serviceable as an example and beacon to future genera- 
tions. All the evils that have been predicted may flow 
from this measure when carried into complete operation, but 
it is neither statesmanlike nor manly to throw up the game 
in despair, and surrender every point, and waive every com- 
pensation, in order to preserve the consistency of himself and 
his own party, not that their consistency is to produce any 
advantage, but that hereafter it 

May point a moral or adorn a tale. 



250 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

So senseless is this, that it is clear to me. that it is not his 
real feeling, and that he promises himself some personal ad- 
vantage from the adoption of such a course. Peel c loves ' 
himself, ' not wisely but too well.' 

February 9 th. — Yesterday I met Lord Grey and rode with 
him. I told him that the Tories were pleased at his speech 
about the Irish Tithes. He said e he did not know why, for 
he had not said what he did with a view to please them.' I 
said because they looked upon it as an intimation that the old 
Protestant ascendency was to be restored. He rejected very 
indignantly that idea, and said he had never contemplated 
any ascendency but that of the law and the Government. I 
said I knew that, but that they had been so long used to 
consider themselves as the sole representatives of the law 
and the Government, that they took the assertion he had 
made as a notification that their authority was again to be 
exercised as in bygone times. He then asked me if I knew 
what Lord Harrowby had done, said he had spoken to him, 
that he was placed in a difficult position and did not know 
what to do. I said that Harrowby was exerting himself, that 
time was required to bring people round, that I had reason 
to believe Harrowby had made a great impression, but that 
most of the Peers of that party were out of town, and it was 
impossible to expect them on the receipt of a letter of in- 
vitation and advice to reply by return of post that they would 
abandon their leaders and their party, and change their 
whole opinions and course of action, that I expected the 
Archbishop and Bishop of London would go with him, 
and that they would carry the bench. He said the 
Bishop of London he had already talked to, that the 
Archbishop was such a poor, miserable creature that 
there was no dependence to be placed on him, that he would 
be frightened and vote any way his fear directed. Then he 
asked, how many had they sure ? I said, c At this moment not 
above eight Lords and eight bishops.' He said that was not 
enough. I said I knew that, but he must have patience, and 
should remember that when the Duke of Wellington brought 
the Catholic Bill into the House of Commons he had a majority 



1832] CONVERSATION WITH LORD GREY. 251 

on paper against him in the House of Lords of twenty-five, 
and he carried the Bill by a hundred. He said he should like 
to talk to Harrowby again, which I pressed him to do, and 
he said he would. I find Lord John Eussell sent for Sandon, 
and told him that he and the others were really anxious to 
avoid making Peers, and entreated him to get something done 
by his father and his associates as soon as possible, that 
there was no time to be lost, that he should not deny that he 
wished Peers to be made, not now, but after the Eeform Bill 
had passed. I called on Lord Harrowby in the afternoon, 
and found him half dead with a headache and dreadfully 
irritable. Letters had come (which he had not seen) from 
Lord Bagot refusing, Lord Carteret ditto, and very imper- 
tinently, and Lord Calthorpe adhering. I told him what had 
passed between Lord Grey and me. He said their insolence 
had been hitherto so great in refusing to listen to any terms 
(at the meeting of the six), and in refusing every concession 
in the House of Commons and not tolerating the slightest 
alteration, that he despaired of doing anything with them, 
that Lord Grey had told him he could not agree to make a 
sham resistance in Committee, but that he on the other hand 
would not agree to go into Committee, except on an express 
understanding that they should not avail themselves of the 
probable disunion of the Tories to carry all the details of 
their Bill. The difficulties are immense, but if Grey and 
Harrowby get together, it is possible something may be done, 
provided they will approach each other in a spirit of com- 
promise. It is certainly easier now, and very different from 
the House of Commons, where I have always thought they 
could make no concession. In the House of Lords they may 
without difficulty. I dread the obstinate of both parties. 

February 11th. — Wharncliffe came to town on Thursday 
and called on me. At Brighton he had seen Sir Andrew 
Barnard, and showed him the correspondence with the 
Duke of Wellington, telling him at the same time he might 
mention it to Taylor if he liked, and if Taylor had any 
wish to see it he should. Accordingly Taylor sent him 
word he should be glad to have an interview with him. They 



252 EIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

met at Lord Wharncliffe's house and had a long conversation, 
in the course of which Taylor gave him to understand that 
it was quite true that the King had consented to everything 
about the creation of Peers, but multa gemens, and that he 
was much alar Died, and could not endure the thought of this 
measure. The end was that a memorandum was drawn up 
of the conversation, and of Wharncliffe's sentiments and 
intentions, which were much the same as those he had put 
forth at the time of the old negotiations. This was taken 
away by Taylor and shown to the King, and copies of it 
were forwarded to Grey, Brougham, and Melbourne. The 
next day Wharncliffe dined with the King, and after dinner 
his Majesty took him aside and said, 'I have seen your 
paper, and I agree with every word you say ; we are indeed 
in a scrape, and we must get out of it as we can. I only 
wish everybody was as reasonable and as moderate as you, 
and then we might do so perhaps without difficulty.' That 
the King is alarmed is pretty clear, but it is more probable 
that his alarm may influence his Ministers than himself, and 
it looks very much as if it had done so. Sir H. Taylor like- 
wise told Wharncliffe that the Duke of Wellington had written 
a letter which had been laid before the King, and had given 
him great offence, and that it certainly was such a letter as 
was unbecoming in any subject to write. This letter is 
supposed to have been addressed to Strangford ; it got into 
Londonderry's hands, and he laid it before the King (upon 
the occasion of his going with some address to Brighton), 
who desired it might be left with him till the next day. The 
reason why they think it was Strangford is that the word 
6 Yiscount ' was apparent at the bottom, but the name was 
erased. In the meantime Harrowby has had some con- 
versation with Lord Lansdowne, who pressed the necessity of 
making a demonstration of their strength, and added that 
if the Archbishop could be induced to declare himself that 
would be sufficient. Lord Harrowby is accordingly working 
incessantly upon the Archbishop on the one hand, while he 
exhorts to patience and reliance on the other. Yesterday 
he took a high tone with Lord Lansdowne, told him that 



1832] WELLINGTON AND WHAENCLIEFE. 253 

he had, as he firmly believed, as many as twenty-five Lords, 
lay and spiritual, with him, which would make a difference 
of fifty, but that as to a public irrevocable pledge, it was not 
to be had, and that Lord Grey must place confidence in his 
belief and reliance upon his exertions, or, if not, he must 
take his own course. Upon Lord Grey's meeting with him, 
and the Archbishop's being brought to the post, the matter 
now hinges. 

In the meantime I have discovered the cause of the 
Duke of Wellington's peevish reply to Wharncliffe, and 
the reason why Lord Harrowby's letter to Lord Bagot was 
unanswered for ten days, and then couched in terms so dif- 
ferent from what might have been expected. Lord Howe 
was at BliffLeld at the time, and they, between them, sent 
Harrowby's letter up to the Duke of Wellington, who of 
course wrote his sentiments in reply. For this they waited, 
and on this Lord Bagot acted. My brother told me yester- 
day that the Duke had seen the letter, and that Lord Howe 
had been the person who sent it him. This explains it all. 
Wharncliffe's letter was but another version of Lord 
Harrowby's, and he had therefore in fact seen it before, 
but seen it addressed to those whom he considered bound 
to him and his views, and I have no doubt he was both 
angry and jealous at Lord Harrowby's interference. Nothing 
could be more uncandid and unjustifiable than Lord Bagot's 
conduct, for he never asked Lord Harrowby's leave to com- 
municate the letter, nor told him that he had done so ; on 
the contrary, he gave him to understand that the delay (for 
which he made many apologies) was owing to his reflection 
and his consulting his brother the bishop. The Duke, no 
doubt, gave him his own sentiments ; yet, in his letter to 
Wharncliffe, he says c he has not endeavoured to influence 
anybody, nor shall he ; ' and at the same time eludes the 
essential question c whether he will support in Committee.' 
So much for Tory candour. As to the Duke, he is evidently 
piqued and provoked to the quick ; his love of power and 
authority are as great as ever, and he can't endure to see 
anybody withdrawn from his influence ; provoked with himself 



254 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

and with everybody else, his mind is clouded by passion and 
prejudice, and the consequences are the ill-humour he dis- 
plays and the abominable nonsense he writes, and yet the 
great mass of these Tories follow the Duke, go where he will, 
let the consequences be what they may, and without requiring 
even a reason ; sic milt sic jubet is enough for them. One 
thing that gives me hopes is the change in the language of 
the friends of Government out of doors — Dover, for instance, 
who has been one of the noisiest of the bawlers for Peers. 
I walked with him from the House of Lords the night before 
last, and he talked only of the break-up of the 199, and of 
the activity of Harrowby and Wharncliffe and its probable 
effects. 

February 14th. — On Saturday evening I found Melbourne 
at the Home Office in his lazy, listening, silent humour, dis- 
posed to hear everything and to say very little ; told me that 
Dover and Sefton were continually at the Chancellor to make 
Peers, and that they both, particularly the latter, had great 
influence with him. Brougham led by Dover and Sefton ! ! 
I tried to impress upon him the necessity of giving Harrowby 
credit, and not exacting what was not to be had, viz., the 
pledges of the anti-Reformers to vote for the second reading. 
He owned that in their case he would not pledge himself 
either. I put before him as strongly as I could all the various 
arguments for resisting this desperate measure of making 
Peers (to which he was well inclined to assent), and pressed 
upon him the importance of not exasperating the Tories and 
the Conservative party to the last degree, and placing such 
an impassable barrier between public men on both sides as 
should make it impossible for them to reunite for their com- 
mon interest and security hereafter. 

In the evening I got a message from Palmerston to beg 
I would call on him, which I did at the Foreign Office yes- 
terday. He is infinitely more alert than Melbourne, and 
more satisfactory to talk to, because he enters with more 
warmth and more detail into the subject. He began by 
referring to the list of Peers likely to vote for the second 
reading, which I showed to him. At the same time I told 



1832] CONVEESATION WITH LOED PALMEKSTON. 255 

him that though he might make use of the information 
generally as far as expressing his own belief that Lord 
Harrowby would have a sufficient following, he must not 
produce the list or quote the names, for, in fact, not one of 
them had given any authority to be so counted ; that he must 
be aware there were persons who would be glad to mar our 
projects, and they could not more effectually do so than by 
conveying to these Peers the use that had been made of their 
names. To all this he agreed entirely. He then talked of 
the expediency of a declaration from Lord Harrowby, and 
how desirable it was that it should be made soon, and be sup- 
ported by as many as could be induced to come forward ; that 
Lord Grey had said to him very lately that he really believed 
he should be obliged to create Peers. I said that my per- 
suasion was that it would be quite unnecessary to do so to 
carry the second reading ; that nothing was required but 
confidence in Lord Harrowby, and that his character and 
his conduct on this occasion entitled him to expect it from 
them ; that if they were sincere in their desire to avoid this 
measure they would trust to his exertions ; that I knew very 
well the efforts that were made to force this measure on 
Lord Grey ; that it was in furtherance of this that Dun- 
combe's ! ridiculous affair in the House of Commons had 
been got up, which had been such a complete failure ; but 
that I could not believe Lord Grey would suffer himself to 
be bullied into it by such despicable means, and by the 
clamour of such men as Buncombe and O'Connell, urged on 
by friends of his own. He said this was very true, but the 
fact was they could not risk the rejection of the Bill again ; 
that he knew from a variety of communications that an ex- 
plosion would inevitably follow its being thrown out on the 
second reading ; that he had had letters from Scotland and 

1 Duncombe brought forward a petition from six men at Barnet com- 
plaining that they had been entrapped into signing Lord Verulam's and Lord 
Salisbury's address to the King. The object was to produce a discussion 
about the Peers. It totally failed, but it was got up with an openness that 
was indecent by Durham and that crew, who were all (Durham, Sefton, Mul- 
grave, Dover) under the gallery to hear it. The thing was ridiculed by Peel, 
fell flat upon the House, and excited disgust and contempt out of it. 



256 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

other places, and had no doubt that such would be the case. I 
said that he would find it very difficult to persuade our friends 
of this, and it appeared to me as clear as possible that the 
feeling for the Bill and the excitement had subsided ; that 
they might be to a certain degree renewed by its rejection, 
but no man could doubt that modifications in it, which would 
have been impossible a few months ago, would now be 
easy; that if it was not for that unfortunate declaration 
of Lord Grey, by which he might consider himself bound, he 
might safely consent to such changes as would make the 
adjustment of the question no difficult matter; that with 
regard to the rejection of the Bill, whatever excitement it 
might produce, it was evident the Government had an 
immediate remedy ; they had only to prorogue Parliament 
for a week and make their Peers, and they would then have 
an excellent pretext — indeed, so good a one that it was in- 
conceivable to me that they should hesitate for a moment in 
adopting that course. This he did not deny. I then told 
him of the several conversations between Lord Harrowby 
and Lords Grey and Lansdowne, and mine with Lord 
Grey ; that Lord Harrowby protested against Lord Grey's 
availing himself of any disunion among the Opposition (pro- 
duced by his support of the second reading) to carry those 
points, to resist which would be the sole object of Lord 
Harrowby in seceding from his party ; and that Lord Grey 
had said he could not make a sham resistance. Palmerston 
said, 6 We have brought in a Bill which we have made as 
good as we can ; it is for you to propose any alterations you 
wish to make in it, and if you can beat us, well and good. 
There are indeed certain things which, if carried against us, 
would be so fatal to the principle of the Bill that Lord 
Grey would not consider it worth carrying if so amended ; 
but on other details he is ready to submit, if they should be 
carried against him.' I said that would not do, that I must 
refer him to the early negotiations and the disposition which 
was then expressed to act upon a principle of mutual conces- 
sion ; that when Lord Harrowby and his friends were pre- 
pared to concede to its fullest extent the principle of dis- 



1832] CONVERSATION WITH LOED PALMERSTON. 257 

franchisement (though, they might propose alterations in a 
few particulars), they had a right to expect that the Govern- 
ment should surrender without fighting some of those 
equivalents or compensations which they should look for in 
the alterations or additions they might propose. He said 
that ' while Lord Harrowby was afraid that Ministers might 
avail themselves of his weakness to carry their details, they 
were afraid lest Lord Harrowby and his friends should unite 
with the ultra-Tories to beat them in Committee on some of 
the essential clauses of the Bill.' I replied, then it was fear 
for fear, and under the circumstances the best thing was an 
understanding that each party should act towards the other 
in a spirit of good faith, and without taking any accidental 
advantage that might accrue either way. We then discussed 
the possibility of an agreement upon the details, and he 
enquired what they would require. I told him that they 
would require an alteration of Schedule B to exclude the 
town voters from county representation, perhaps to vary the 
franchise, and some other things, with regard to which I 
could not speak positively at the moment. He said he thought 
some alteration might be made in Schedule B, particularly 
in giving all the towns double members, by cutting off the 
lower ones that had one ; that it was intended no man should 
have a vote for town and county on the same qualification, 
and he believed there were very few who would possess the 
double right. That I said would make it more easy to give 
up, and it was a thing the others laid great stress upon. He 
seemed to think it might be done. As to the 10Z., he said he 
had at first been disposed to consider it too low, but he had 
changed his mind, and now doubted if it would not turn out to 
be too high. We then talked of the metropolitan members, 
to which I said undoubtedly they wished to strike them off, 
but they knew very well the Government desired it equally. 
We agreed that I should get from Lord Harrowby specifically 
what he would require, and he would give me in return what 
concessions the Government would probably be disposed to 
make; that these should be communicated merely as the 
private opinions of individuals, and not as formal proposals ; 
VOL. II. 8 



258 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

and we should try and blend them together into some feasible 
compromise. 

I afterwards saw the Duke of Richmond, who said that 
Dover and Sefton had both attacked him for being against 
making Peers, and he should like to know how they knew 
it. I told him, from the Chancellor, to be sure, and added 
how they were always working at him and the influence 
they had with him. He said the Chancellor's being for 
making Peers was not enough to carry the question ; that if 
it was done it must be by a minute of the Cabinet, with the 
names of the dissentients appended to it ; and then the King 
must determine ; that if the dissentients seceded upon it it 
would be impossible. He recollected, when there was a 
question of making Peers on the Catholic question by the 
Duke of Wellington, that he and some others had resolved, 
should it have been done, to avail themselves of the power of 
the House to come down day after day and move adjourn- 
ments before any of the new Peers could take their seats ; 
that the same course might be adopted now, though it would 
produce a revolution. I told him that I had little doubt 
there were men who would not scruple to adopt any course, 
however violent, that the power of Parliament would admit 
of; that there were several who were of opinion that the 
creation of Peers would at once lay the Constitution prostrate 
and bring about a revolution ; that they considered it would 
be not a remote and uncertain, but a sure and proximate 
event, and if by accelerating it they could crush their oppo- 
nents they would do so without hesitation. 

In the meantime the cholera has made its appearance in 
London, at Eotherhithe, Limehouse, and in a ship off Green- 
wich — in all seven cases. These are amongst the lowest and 
most wretched classes, chieliy Irish, and a more lamentable 
exhibition of human misery than that given by the medical 
men who called at the Council Office yesterday I never heard. 
'They are in the most abject state of poverty, without beds to 
lie upon. The men live by casual labour, are employed by 
the hour, and often get no more than four or five hours' 
employment in the course of the week. They are huddled 



1832] INTERVIEW OF LORD HARROWBY AND LORD GREY. 259 

and crowded together by families in the same room, not as 
permanent lodgers, bnt procuring a temporary shelter; in 
short, in the most abject state of physical privation and 
moral degradation that can be imagined. On Saturday we 
had an account of one or more cases. We sent instantly 
down to inspect the district and organise a Board of Health. 
A meeting was convened, and promises given that all things 
needful should be done, but as they met at a public-house they 
all got drunk and did nothing. We have sent down members 
of the Board of Health to make preparations and organise 
boards ; but, if the disease really spreads, no human power 
can arrest its progress through such an Augean stable. 

February 14th. — Dined with Lord Harrowby, and com- 
municated conversation with Palmerston and Melbourne. 
He has not been able to decide the Archbishop, who is on and 
oft, and can't make up his mind. Lord Harrowby is going 
to Lord Grey to talk with ]jiin. The Tories obstinate as 
mules. The Duke of Buccleuch, who had got Harrowby's 
letter, and copied it himself that he might know it by heart, 
has made up his mind to vote the other way, as he did before ; 
Lord Wallace (after a long correspondence) the same. There 
can be little doubt that they animate one another, and their 
cry is e to stick to the Duke of Wellington.' The cholera is 
established, and yesterday formal communications were made 
to the Lord Mayor and to the Secretary of State for Foreign 
Affairs that London was no longer healthy. 

February 17th. — Wharncliffe came to town the night 
before last, it having been settled that Harrowby was to go to 
Lord Grey yesterday morning. After consultation we agreed 
he had better go alone, that it would be less formal, and that 
Lord Grey would be more disposed to open himself. The same 
evening, at Madame de Lieven's ball, Melbourne and Pal- 
merston both told me that Grey was in an excellent dispo- 
sition. However, yesterday morning Harrowby had such a 
headache that he was not fit to go alone, so the two went. 
Nothing could be more polite than Grey, and on the whole 
the interview was satisfactory. Nothing was agreed upon, 
all left dans le vague ; but a disposition to mutual confidence 

s 2 



260 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

was evinced, and I should think it pretty safe that no Peers 
will be made. Lord Grey told them that if they could, 
relieve him from the necessity of creating Peers he should 
be sincerely obliged to them, showed them a letter from the 
King containing the most unlimited power for the purpose,, 
and said that, armed with that authority, if the Bill could be 
passed in no other way, it must be so. A minute was drawn 
up to this effect, of which Wharncliffe showed me a copy 
last night. 

'Lords Harrowby and Wharncliffe cannot give any 
names, or pledge themselves to any particular persons or 
numbers who will support their views, but they have no 
doubt in their own minds that there will be, in the event of 
no creation of Peers, a, sufficient number to carry the second 
reading of the Bill. In voting themselves for the second 
reading, their intention is to propose such alterations in Com- 
mittee as, in their opinion, can alone render it a measure 
fit to be passed into law, and in the event of their being 
unable to effect the changes they deem indispensable, they 
reserve to themselves the power of opposing the Bill in its 
subsequent stages. Lord Grey considers the great principles 
of the Bill of such vital importance that he could not agree 
to any alteration in them, but admits that a modification of 
its details need not be fatal to it, reserving to himself, if any 
of its vital principles should be touched, the power of taking 
such ulterior measures as he may find necessary to ensure 
its success. Lords Harrowby and Wharncliffe are prepared 
to make a declaration of their sentiments and intentions in 
the House of Lords at a proper time, that time to be a subject 
of consideration ; and in the event of their having reason to 
believe that their present expectations are not likely to be 
fulfilled, they will feel bound to give Lord Grey information 
thereof, in order that he may take such measures as he may 
think right.' l 

At present the principal difficulty promises to be the 10?. 
clause. Lord Grey seemed to think this could not be altered. 
Wharncliffe asked if it might not be modified, and so settled 
1 This is the substance, not a textual copy. 



1832] DISTRESS IN BETHNAL GREEN. 26 L 

as to secure its being a bond fide 101. clause, from which Lord 
Grey did not dissent, but answered rather vaguely, 

In the meantime I think some progress is made in the 
work of conversion. Harris has gone back, and Wilton, 
whom I always doubted. I doubt anybody within the im- 
mediate sphere of the Duke, but Wynford is well disposed, 
and the Archbishop has nearly given in. His surrender would 
clinch the matter. I am inclined to think we shall get through 
the second reading. Lord Grey was attacked by Madame de 
Lieven the other day, who told him he was naturally all 
that is right-minded and good, but was supposed to be in- 
fluenced against his own better judgment by those about him. 
She also said something to the Duke of Wellington about 
Lord Harrowby, to which he replied that Lord Harrowby 
* etait une mauvaise tete ! ' Very amusing from him, but he 
is provoked to death that anybody should venture to desert 
from him. 

The cholera has produced more alertness than alarm here; 
in fact, at present it is a mere trifle — in three days twenty- 
eight persons. Nothing like the disorders which rage 
unheeded every year and every day among the lower orders. 
It is its name, its suddenness, and its frightful symptoms 
that terrify. The investigations, however, into the condition 
of the different parishes have brought to light dreadful cases 
of poverty and misery. A man came yesterday from Bethnal 
Green with an account of that district. They are all 
weavers, forming a sort of separate community; there they 
are born, there they live and labour, and there they die. 
They neither migrate nor change their occupation ; they 
can do nothing else. They have increased in a ratio at 
variance with any principles of population, having nearly 
tripled in twenty years, from 22,000 to 62,000. They are 
for the most part out of employment, and can get none ; 1,100 
are crammed into the poor-house, five or six in a bed; 
6,000 receive parochial relief. The parish is in debt ; every 
day adds to the number of paupers and diminishes that of 
ratepayers. These are principally small shopkeepers, who 
are beggared by the rates. The district is in a complete % 



262 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

state of insolvency and hopeless poverty, yet they multiply, 
and while the people look squalid and dejected, as if borne 
down by their wretchedness and destitution, the children 
thrive and are healthy. Government is - ready to interpose 
with assistance, but what can Government do l ? We asked 
the man who came what could be done for them. He said 
< employment,' and employment is impossible. 

February 20th. — Lord Grey was very much pleased with 
the result of his interview, and expresses unbounded reli- 
ance on Lord Harrowby's honour. The ultras, of course, 
will give him no credit, and don't believe he can command 
votes enough ; ' 1' affaire marche, mais lentement,' and the 
seceders (or those we hope will be so) will not declare them- 
selves positively. There is no prevailing upon them. The 
Archbishop is with us one day, and then doubts, though I 
think we shall have him at last. A good deal of conversa- 
tion passed between Grey and Harrowby, which the latter 
considers confidential and won't repeat. It was about the 
details ; the substance of the minute he feels at liberty to 
communicate. By way of an episode, news came last night 
of an insurrection of the slaves in Jamaica, in which fifty- 
two plantations had been destroyed. It was speedily sup- 
pressed by Willoughby Cotton, and the ringleaders were 
executed by martial law. 

February 23rd. — At Court yesterday ; long conversation 
with Melbourne, and in the evening with Charles Wood and 
Richmond, who is more alarmed about the Peers. Mel- 
bourne had got an idea that Lord Harrowby's letter, which 
had been reported if not shown to the Government, had 
done a great deal of harm, inasmuch as it set forth so 
strongly the same arguments to the Tories to show them 
the danger of letting Peers be made that Durham and Co. 
make use of as an argument for the same. I promised to 
show it him, and replied that they could not expect Lord 
Harrowby to do anything but employ the arguments that 
are most likely to take effect with these people, but they are 
not put in an offensive manner. Melbourne said that the 
King is more reconciled to the measure, i. e. that they have 



1832] LOED HARROWBY'S LETTER. 263 

got the foolish old man in town and can talk him over more 
readily. A discussion last night abont the propriety of 
making a declaration to-day in the House of Lords, when 
the Duke of Eutland presents a petition against Eeform. 
The Archbishop will not decide ; there is no moving him. 
Curious that a Dr. Howley, the other day Canon of Christ 
Church, a very ordinary man, should have in his hands the 
virtual decision of one of the most momentous matters that 
ever occupied public attention. There is no doubt that his 
decision would decide the business so far. Up to this time 
certainly Harrowby and Wharncliffe have no certainty of a 
sufficient number for the second reading ; but I think they 
will have enough at last. 

February 24<th. — Harrowby and Wharncliffe agreed, if the 
Duke of Eutland on presenting his petition gave them a 
good opportunity, they would speak. It was a very good 
one, for the petition turned out to be one for a mode- 
rate Eeform, more in their sense than in the Duke's own ; 
but the moment it was read Kenyon jumped up. Harrowby 
thought he was going to speak upon it, whereas he pre- 
sented another ; and I believe he was put up by the Duke 
to stop any discussion. 

In the evening went to Lord Holland's, when he and she 
asked me about the letter. Somebody had given abstracts 
of it, with the object of proving to Lord Grey that Harrowby 
had been uncandid, or something like it, and had held out 
to the Tories that if they would adopt his line they would 
turn out the Government. Holland and the rest fancied the 
letter had been written since the intervievj, but I told them it 
was three iveeks before, and I endeavoured to explain that the 
abstracts must be taken in connection not only with the rest 
of the text, but with the argument. Holland said Lord Grey 
meant to ask Harrowby for the letter. From thence I went 
to Harrowby, and told him this. He said he would not show 
it, that Grey had no right to ask for a private letter written 
by him weeks before to one of his friends, and it was beneath 
him to answer for and explain anything he had thought fit 
to say. But he has done what will probably answer as well, 



264 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

for he has given Ebrington a copy of it for the express purpose 
of going to Lord Grey and explaining anything that appears 
ambiguous to him. As the business develops itself, and 
the time approaches, communication becomes more open 
and frequent ; the Tories talk with great confidence of their 
majority, and the ultra- Whigs are quite ready to believe 
them ; the two extreme ends are furious. Our list up to this 
day presents a result of forty-three votes to thirty-seven 
doubtful, out of which it is hard if a majority cannot be got. 
I have no doubt now that they will take a very early oppor- 
tunity of making a declaration. Peel, in the other House, 
is doing what he can to inflame and divide, and repress any 
spirit of conciliation. Nothing is sure in his policy but that 
it revolves round himself as the centre, and is influenced by 
some view which he takes of his own future advantage, pro- 
bably the rallying of the Conservative party (as they call 
themselves, though they are throwing away everything into 
confusion and sinking ever3 T thing by their obstinacy) and his 
being at the head of it. He made a most furious and mis- 
chievous speech. 

February 29th. — Ebrington took Harrowby's letter to 
Lord Grey, who was satisfied but not pleased ; the date and 
the circumstances (which were explained) removed all bad 
impressions from his mind. Since this a garbled version (or 
rather extracts) has appeared in the ' Times,' which endea- 
vours to make a great stir about it. Harrowby was very 
much annoyed, and thought of sending the letter itself to 
the ' Times ' to be published at once ; but Haddington and 
I both urged him not, and last night he put a contradiction 
in the ' Globe.' I have little doubt that this as well as the 
former extracts came from the shop of Durham and Co., and 
so Melbourne told me he thought likewise. There was a great 
breeze at the last Cabinet dinner between Durham and Eich- 
mond again on the old subject — the Peers. I believe they will 
now take their chance. Our list presents forty-seven sure 
votes besides the doubtful, but not many pledges. As to me, 
I am really puzzled what to wish for — that is, for the success 
of which party, being equally disgusted with the folly of both. 



1832] VIOLENCE OF EXTKEME PARTIES. 265 

My old aversion for the High Tories returns when I see their 
conduct on this occasion. The obstinacy of the Duke, the 
selfishness of Peel, the pert vulgarity of Croker, and the in- 
capacity of the rest are set in constant juxtaposition with 
the goodness of the cause they are now defending, but which 
they will mar by their way of defending it. A man is 
wanting, a fresh man, with vigour enough to govern, and 
who will rally round him the temperate and the moderate of 
different parties — men unfettered by prejudices, connections, 
and above all by pledges, expressed or implied, and who can 
and will address themselves to the present state and real 
wants of the country, neither terrified into concession by the 
bullying of the press and the rant of public meetings and 
associations, nor fondly lingering over bygone systems of 
government and law. That the scattered materials exist is 
probable, but the heated passion of the times has produced 
so much repulsion among these various atoms that it is 
difficult to foresee when a cooler temperature may permit 
their cohesion into any efficient mass. 

March 6th. — The ultra- Whigs and ultra-Tories are both 
outrageous. Day after day the 6 Times ' puts forth para- 
graphs, evidently manufactured in the Durham shop, about 
Harrowby's letter, and yesterday there was one which ex- 
hibited their mortification and rage so clearly as to be quite 
amusing, praising the Duke and the Tories, and abusing 
Harrowby and Wharncliffe and the moderates. In the 
meantime, while Lord Grey is negotiating with Harrowby for 
the express purpose of avoiding the necessity of making Peers, 
Durham, his colleague and son-in-law, in conjunction with 
Dover, is (or has been) going about with a paper for signa- 
ture by Peers, being a requisition to Lord Grey to make new 
Peers, inviting everybody he could find to sign this by way 
of assisting that course of bullying and violence he has long 
pursued, but happily in vain. Lord Grey is, I believe, really 
disgusted with all these proceedings ; he submits and does 
nothing. Richmond quarrels with Durham, Melbourne 
damns him, and the rest hate him. But there he is, 
frowning, sulking, bullying, and meddling, and doing all the 



266 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

harm lie can. Never certainly was there such a Government 
as this, so constituted, so headed — a chief with an imposing 
exterior, a commanding eloquence, and a character l below 
contempt, seduced and governed by anybody who will 
minister to his vanity and presume upon his facility. 

There has been nothing remarkable in either House of 
Parliament but an attack made by Londonderry on Plunket, 
who gave him so terrific a dressing that it required to be as 
pachydermatous as he is to stand it. He is, however, a glut- 
ton, for he took it all, and seemed to like it. I dined with 
Madame de Lieven a day or two ago, and was talking to her 
about politics and political events, and particularly about the 
memoirs, or journal, or whatever it be, that she has written. 
She said she had done so very irregularly, but that what she 
regretted was not having kept more exact records of the 
events and transactions of the Belgian question (which is 
not yet settled), that it was in its circumstances the most 
curious that could be, and exhibited more remarkable mani- 
festations of character and e du cceur humain, 5 as well as of 
politics generally, than any course of events she knew. I 
asked her why she did not give them now. She said it was 
impossible, that the ' nuances ' were so delicate and so nume- 
rous, the details so nice and so varying, that unless caught 
at the moment they escaped, and it was impossible to collect 
them again. 

March 9th. — Went to Lord Holland's the other night, and 
had a violent battle with him on politics. Nobody so violent 
as he, and curious as exhibiting the opinions of the ultras of 
the party. About making Peers — wanted to know what 
Harrowby's real object was. I told him none but to prevent 
what he thought an enormous evil. What did it signify (he 
said) whether Peers were made now or later ? that the pre- 
sent House of Lords never could go on with a Eeformed Par- 
liament, it being opposed to all the wants and wishes of the 
people, hating the abolition of tithes, the press, and the 

1 By character I mean what the French call caractere, not that he is 
■wanting- in honour and honesty, nor in ability ; but in resolution and strength 
of mind. 



1832] IRISH XATIOX.iL EDUCATION. 267 

French Revolution, and that in order to make it harmonise 
•with the Reformed Parliament it must be amended by an 
infusion of a more Liberal cast. This was the spirit of his 
harangue, which might have been easily answered, for it all 
goes upon the presumption that his party is that which har- 
monises with the popular feeling, and what he means by 
improving the character of the House is to add some fifty or 
sixty men who may be willing to accept peerages upon the 
condition of becoming a body-guard to this Government. 

The 6 Times ' yesterday and the day before attacked Lord 
Grey with a virulence and indecency about the Peers that is 
too much even for those who take the same line, and he now 
sees where his subserviency to the press has conducted him. 
In the House of Commons the night before last, Ministers 
would have been beaten on the sugar duties if Baring Wall, 
who had got ten people to dinner, had chosen to go down in 
time. 

The principal subject of discussion this last week has 
been the Education Board in Ireland, the object of which is 
to combine the education of Catholics and Protestants by an 
arrangement with regard to the religious part of their 
instruction that may be compatible with the doctrines and 
practice of both. This arrangement consists in there 
being only certain selections from the Bible, which are 
admitted generally, while particular days and hours are set 
apart for the separate religious exercises of each class. 
This will not do for the zealous Protestants, who bellow for 
the whole Bible as Reformers do for the whole Bill. 
While the whole system is crumbling to dust under their 
feet, while the Church is prostrate, property of all kind 
threatened, and robbery, murder, starvation, and agitation 
rioting over the land, these wise legislators are debating 
whether the brats at school shall read the whole Bible or 
only parts of it. They do nothing but rave of the barbarism 
and ignorance of the Catholics ; they know that education 
alone can better their moral condition, and that their religious 
tenets prohibit the admission of any system of education (in 
which Protestants and Catholics can be joined) except such 



268 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

an one as this, and yet they would rather knock the system 
on the head, and prevent all the good that may flow from it, 
than consent to a departure from the good old rules of Orange 
ascendency and Popish subserviency and degradation, know- 
ing too, above all, that those who are to read and be taught 
are equally indifferent to the whole Bible or to parts of it, 
that they comprehend it not, have no clear and definite ideas 
on the subject but as matter of debate, vehicle of dispute and 
dissension, and almost of religious hatred and disunion, and 
that when once they have escaped from the trammels of their 
school, not one in a hundred will trouble his head about 
the Bible at all, and not one in a thousand attend to its 
moral precepts. 

March 10th. — Yesterday morning Wharncliffe came to me 
to give me an account of the conversation the other day be- 
tween him and Harrowby on one side and Lords Grey and 
Lansdowne on the other. Harrowby was headachy and out 
of sorts. However, it went off very satisfactorily ; the list 
was laid before Grey, who was satisfied, and no Peers are to 
be made before the second reading ; but he said that if the 
Bill should be carried by so small a majority as to prove that 
the details could not be carried in Committee, he must re- 
serve the power of making Peers then. At this Harrowby 
winced, but Wharncliffe said he thought it fair ; and in fact 
it is only in conformity with the protocol that was drawn up 
at the last conversation. They entered into the details, and 
Lord Grey said the stir that had been made about the metro- 
politan members might raise difficulties, and then asked would 
they agree to this, to give members to Marylebone and 
throw over the rest? To this Harrowby would not agree, 
greatly to Wharncliffe's annoyance, who would have agreed, 
and I think he would have been in the right. It would have 
been as well to have nailed Grey to this, and if Harrowby 
had not had a headache I think he would have done so. With 
regard to the 10Z. clause, Wharncliffe thinks they will not 
object to a modification. Grey spoke of the press, and with 
just wrath and indignation of the attacks on himself. On 
the whole this was good. The capture of Yandamme was 



1832] IEISH TITHES. 269 

the consequence of a bellyache, and the metropolitan repre- 
sentation depended on a headache. If the truth could be 
ascertained, perhaps many of the greatest events in history 
turned upon aches of one sort or another. Montaigne might 
have written an essay on it. 

March 12th. — Durham made another exhibition of temper 
at the Cabinet dinner last Wednesday. While Lord Grey 
was saying something he rudely interrupted him, as his cus- 
tom is. Lord Grey said, ' But, my dear Lambton, only hear 
what I was going to say,' when the other jumped up and 
said, ' Oh, if I am not to be allowed to speak I may as well 
go away,' rang the bell, ordered his carriage, and marched 
off. Wharncliffe came to me yesterday morning to propose 
writing a pamphlet in answer to the ' Quarterly Eeview,' which 
has got an article against his party. I suggested instead 
that an attempt should be made by Sandon (who has been 
in some communication with the editor about this matter) 
to induce the ' Morning Herald ' to support us, and make 
that paper the vehicle of our articles. This he agreed to, 
and was to propose it to Sandon last night. We have no 
advocate in the press ; the Whig and Tory papers are equally 
violent against us. Yesterday I saw a letter which has 
been circulated among the Tories, written by young Lord 
Redesdale to Lord Bathurst, a sort of counter-argument to 
Lord Harrowby's letter, although not an answer, as it was 
written before he had seen that document; there is very 
little in it. 

March 1 6th. — Lord Grey made an excellent speech in the 
House of Lords in reply to Aberdeen's questions about 
Ancona, and Peel made another in the House of Commons 
on Irish Tithes, smashing Sheil, taking high ground and 
a strong position, but doing nothing towards settling the 
question. He forgets that the system is bad, resting on 
a false foundation, and that it has worked ill and been 
bolstered up by him and his party till now it can no longer 
be supported, and it threatens to carry away with it that 
which is good in itself. We owe these things to those who 
wilfully introduced a moral confusion of ideas into their 



270 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

political machinery, and, by destroying the essential distinc- 
tion between right and wrong, have deprived the things 
which are right of the best part of their security. I have 
never been able to understand why our system should be 
made to rest on artificial props when it did not require them, 
nor the meaning of that strange paradox which a certain 
school of statesmen have always inculcated, that institutions 
of admitted excellence required to be conjoined with others 
which were founded in crime and error, and which could only 
be supported by power. This has brought about Reform ; it 
would be easy to prove it. The Ancona affair will blow over. 
George Yilliers w r rites me word that it was a little escapade 
of Perier's, done in a hurry, a mistake, and yet he is a very 
able man. Talleyrand told me f c'est une betise.' Nothing 
goes on well ; the world is out of joint. 

Fanny Kemble's new tragedy came out last night with 
complete success, written when she was seventeen, an odd 
play for a girl to write. The heroine is tempted like 
Isabella in ' Measure for Measure,' but with a different result, 
which result is supposed to take place between the acts. 

March 26th. — Ten days since I have written anything here, 
but en revanche I have written a pamphlet. An article ap- 
peared in the - Quarterly,' attacking Harrowby and his friends. 
Wharncliffe was so desirous it should be answered that I 
undertook the job, and it comes out to-day in a c Letter to 
Lockhart, in reply,' &c. I don't believe anybody read the 
last I wrote, but as I have published this at Ridgway's, per- 
haps it may have a more extensive sale. The events have 
been the final passing of the Bill, after three nights' debate, 
by a majority of 116, ended by a very fine speech from Peel, 
who has eminently distinguished himself through this fight. 
Stanley closed the debate at five o'clock in the morning, with 
what they say was a good and dexterous speech, but which 
contained a very unnecessary dissertation about the Peers. 
This, together with some words from Richmond and the 
cheerfulness of Holland, makes my mind misgive me that we 
shall still have them created for the Committee. The conduct 
of the ultra-Tories has been so bad and so silly that I can- 
not wish to bring them in, though I have a great desire to turn 



1832] EEFOKM BILL IN THE HOUSE OF LOKDS. 271 

the others out. As to a moderate party, it is a mere dream, 
for where is the moderation ? This day Lord John Russell 
brings the Bill up to the House of Lords, and much indeed 
depends upon what passes there. Harrowby and Wharncliffe 
will make their speeches, and we shall, I conclude, have the 
Duke and Lord Grey. I expect, and I beg his pardon if I am 
wrong, that the Duke will make as mischievous a speech as 
he can, and try to provoke declarations and pledges against 
the Bill. The Ministers are exceedingly anxious that Har- 
rowby should confine himself to generalities, which I hope 
too, for I am certain no good can, and much harm may, be 
done by going into details. Grey, Holland, and Richmond all 
three spoke to me about it last night, and I am going to see 
what can be done with them. I should not fear Harrowby 
but that he is petulant and sour ; Wharncliffe is vain, and 
has been excited in all this business, though with very good 
and very disinterested motives, but he cannot bear patiently 
the abuse and the ridicule with which both the extreme ends 
endeavour to cover him, and he is uneasy under it, and what 
I dread is that in making attempts to set himself right, and to 
clear his character with a party who will never forgive him for 
what he has done, and to whom whatever he says will be words 
cast to the winds, he will flounder, and say something which 
will elicit from Lord Grey some declaration that may make 
matters worse than ever. What I hope and trust is that the 
Government and our people will confine themselves to civil 
generalities, and pledge themselves de part et cVautre to no- 
thing, and that they will not be provoked by taunts from any 
quarter to depart from that prudent course. 

There was another breeze in the House of Lords about 
Irish Education, the whole bench of bishops in a flame, 
and except Maltby, who spoke for, all declared against the 
plan — Phillpotts in a furious speech. What celestial influences 
have been at work I know not, but certain it is that the 
world seems going mad, individually and collectively. The 
town has been more occupied this week with Dudley's extra- 
vagancies than the affairs of Europe. He, in fact, is mad, 
but is to be cupped and starved and disciplined sound again. 
It has been fine talk for the town. The public curiosity and 



272 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVII. 

love of news is as voracious and universal as the appetite of a 
shark, and, like it, loves best what is grossest and most dis- 
gusting ; anything relating to personal distress, to crime, to 
passion, is greedily devoured by this monster, as Cowley calls it. 

I see 
The monster London laugh at me ; 
I would at thee, too, foolish City, 
But thy estate I pity. 

Shonld all the wicked men from out thee go, 
And all the fools that crowd thee so, 
Thou, who dost thy thousands boast, 
Would be a wilderness almost. — Ode to Solitude. 

But of all the examples of cant, hypocrisy, party violence, I 
have never seen any to be compared to the Irish Education 
business ; and there was Rosslyn, an old Whig, voting against; 
Carnarvon stayed away, every Tory without exception going 
against the measure. As to madness, Dudley has gone mad 
in his own house, Perceval in the House of Commons, and 
John Montague in the Park, the two latter preaching, both 
Irvingites and believers in ' the tongues.' Dudley's madness 
took an odd turn ; he would make up all his quarrels with 
Lady Holland, to whom he has not spoken for sixteen years, 
and he called on her, and there were tears and embraces, and 
God knows what. Sydney Smith told her that she was bound 
in honour to set the quarrel up again when he comes to his 
senses, and put things into the status quo ante pacem. It 
would be hard upon him to find, on getting out of a strait 
waistcoat, that he had been robbed of all his hatreds and hos- 
tilities, and seduced into the house of his oldest foe. 

March 27th. — I did the Duke of Wellington an injustice. 
He spoke, but without any violence, in a fair and gentleman- 
like manner, a speech creditable to himself, useful and becom- 
ing. If there was any disposition on the part of his followers to 
light a flame, he at once repressed it. The whole thing went 
off well ; House very full ; Harrowby began, and made an ex- 
cellent speech, with the exception of one mistake. He dwelt 
too much on the difference between this Bill and the last, 
as if the difference of his own conduct resulted from that 
cause, and this I could see they were taking up in their 



1832] DEBATE IN THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 273 

minds, and though, he corrected the impression afterwards, 
it will be constantly brought up against him, I have no 
doubt. After him Carnarvon, who alone was violent, but short; 
then Wharncliffe (I am not sure which was first of these two), 
very short and rather embarrassed, expressing his concur- 
rence with Lord Harrowby ; then the Bishop of London, 
short also, but strong in his language, much more than Lord 
Harrowby; then Lord Grey, temperate and very general, 
harping a little too much on that confounded word efficiency, 
denying that what he said last year bore the interpretation 
that had been put upon it, and announcing that he would 
give his best consideration to any amendments, a very good 
speech ; then the Duke, in a very handsome speech, 
acknowledging that he was not against all Eeform, though 
he was against this Bill, because he did not think if it passed 
it would be possible to carry on the government of the 
country, but promising that if the Bill went into Committee 
he would give his constant attendance, and do all in his 
power to make it as safe a measure as possible. So finished 
this important evening, much to the satisfaction of the mode- 
rate, and to the disgust of the violent party. I asked Lord 
Holland if he was satisfied (in the House after the debate), 
and he said, ' Yes, yes, very well, but the Bishop's the man ; ' 
and in the evening at Lord Grey's I found they were all full 
of the Bishop. Lord Grey said to me, ' Well, you will allow 
that I behaved very well ? ' I said, 6 Yes, veiy, but the whole 
thing was satisfactory, I think.' ' Yes,' he said, c on the whole, 
but they were a little too strong, too violent against the 
Bill,' because Harrowby had declared that he felt the same 
objection to the measure he had felt before. Sefton was 
outrageous, talked a vast deal of amusing nonsense, ' that he 
had never heard such twaddle,' ' but that the success was com- 
plete, and he looked on Harrowby and Wharncliffe as the two 
most enviable men in the kingdom.' I have no doubt that 
all the ultras will be deeply mortified at the moderation of 
Lord Grey and of the Duke of Wellington, and at the success 
so far of 'the Waverers.' 

VOL. II. t 



274 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 



CHAPTEE XYIII. 

Debate in the House of Lords — Lord Harrowby's Position — Hopes of a Com- 
promise — Lord Melbourne's View — Disturbances caused by the Cholera 
— The Disfranchisement Clause — The Number * 56 ' — Peers contem- 
plated — The King's Hesitation — ' The Hunchback ' — Critical Position of 
the Waverers — Bill carried by Nine in the Lords — The Cholera in Paris 
Moderate Speech of Lord Grey — End of the Secession — Conciliatory 
Overtures — Negotiations carried on at Newmarket — Hostile Division in 
the Lords — Lord Wharncliffe's Account of his Failure — Lord Grey re- 
signs—The Duke of Wellington attempts to form a Ministry — Peel 
declines — Hostility of the Court to the Whigs — A. Change of Scene — The 
Duke fails — History of the Crisis — Lord Grey returns to Office — The 
King's Excitement — The King writes to the Opposition Peers— Defeat 
and Disgrace of the Tories — Conversation of the Duke of Wellington — 
Louis XVin. — Madame du Cayla — Weakness of the King — Mortality 
among Great Men — Petition against Lord W. Bentinck's Prohibition of 
Suttee heard by the Privy Council — O'Connell and the Cholera — Irish 
Tithe Bill — Irish Difficulties — Mr. Stanley — Concluding Debates of the 
Parliament — Quarrel between Brougham and Sugden — Holland and 
Belgium— Brougham's Revenge and Apology — Dinner at Holland House 
— Anecdotes of Johnson — Death of Mr. Greville's Father — Madame de 
Flahaut's Account of the Princess Charlotte — Prince Augustus of 
Prussia — Captain Hess — Hostilities in Holland and in Portugal — The 
Duchesse de Berri — Conversation with Lord Melbourne on the State of 
the Government. 

March 2$th. — There appear to have been as many differ- 
ences of opinion as of people on the discussion in the House of 
Lords when the Bill was brought up, and it seems paradoxical, 
but is true, that though it was on the whole satisfactory, no- 
body was satisfied. Lord Grey complained to me that Lord 
Harrowby was too stiff; Lord Harrowby complained that 
Lord Grey was always beating about the bush of compromise, 
but never would commit himself fairly to concession. Mel- 
bourne complained last night that what was done was done in 



1832] LORD HARROWEY'S PATRIOTIC CONDUCT. 275 

such an ungracious manner, so niggardly, that lie hated the 
man (Harrowby) who did it. The ultra-Tories are outra- 
geous 'that he gave up everything without reason or cause;' 
the ultra- Whigs equally furious 'that he had shown how 
little way he was disposed to go in Committee ; his object was 
to turn out the Government ; ' and what is comical, neither 
party will believe that Harrowby really is so obnoxious to 
the other as he is said to be. Each is convinced that he is 
actiug in the interests of the other. What a position, what 
injustice, blindness, folly, obstinacy, brought together and 
exhibited ! If ever there was a man whose conduct was 
exempt from the ordinary motives of ambition, and who 
made personal sacrifices in what he is doing, it is Lord 
Harrowby, and yet there is no reproach that is not cast upon 
him, no term of abuse that is not applied to him, no motive 
that is not ascribed to him. No wonder a man who has seen 
much of them is sick of politics and public life. Nothing 
now is thought of but the lists, and of course everybody has 
got one. The Tories still pretend to a majority of seven ; 
the Government and Harrowby think they have one of from 
ten to twenty, and I suspect fifteen will be found about the 
mark. The unfortunate thing is tha^ neither of our cocks is 
good for fighting, not from want of courage, but Harrowby 
is peevish, ungracious and unpopular, and Wharncliffe 
carries no great weight. To be sure neither of them pre- 
tends to make a party, but then their opponents insist upon 
it that they do, and men shrink from enlisting (or being 
sujDposed to enlist) under Wharncliffe's banner. However, 
notwithstanding the violence of the noisy fools of the party, 
and of the women, there is a more rational disposition on 
the part of practical men, for Wharncliffe spoke to Ellen- 
borough yesterday, and told him that though he knew he 
and Harrowby were regarded as traitors by all of them, he 
did hope that when the Bill came into Committee they would 
agree to consult together, and try and come to some under- 
standing as to the best mode of dealing with the question, 
that it was absurd to be standing aloof at such a moment ; 
to which Ellenborough replied that he perfectly agreed with 

T 2 



to 



276 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

him, was anxious to do so, and intended to advise his friends 
to take that course. 

April 1st. — Wharncliffe got Lord Grey to put off the 
second reading for a few days on account of the Quarter 
Sessions, which drew down a precious attack from London- 
derry, and was in fact very foolish and unnecessary, as it 
looks like a concert between them, of which it is very desir- 
able to avoid any appearance, as in fact none exists. The 
violence of the Tories continues unabated, and there is no 
effort they do not make to secure a majority, and they ex- 
pect either to succeed or to bring it to a near thing. In the 
meantime the tone of the other party is changed. Dover, 
who makes lists, manages proxies, and does all the little 
jobbing, whipping-in, busy work of the party, makes out a 
clear majority, and told me he now thought the Bill would 
get through without Peers. The Government, however, are 
all agreed to make the Peers if it turns out to be necessary, 
and especially if the Bill should be thrown out, it seems clear 
that they would by no means go out, but make the Peers 
and bring it in again ; so I gather from Eichmond, and he 
who was the most violently opposed of the whole Cabinet to 
Peer-making, is now ready to make any number if necessary. 
There is, however, I hope, a disposition to concession, which, 
if matters are tolerably well managed, may lead to an 
arrangement. Still Wharncliffe, who must have a great deal 
to do in Committee, is neither prudent nor popular. The 
Tories are obstinate, sulky, and indisposed to agree to any- 
thing reasonable. It is the unity of object and the compact- 
ness of the party which give the Government strength. 
Charles Wood told me the other day that they were well 
disposed to a compromise on two special points, one the ex- 
clusion of town voters from the right of voting for counties, 
the other the metropolitan members. On the first he pro- 
posed that no man voting for a town in right of a 10L house 
should have a vote for the county in right of any freehold in 
that town. That would be half-way between Wharncliffe's 
plan and the present. The second, that Marylebone should 
return two members, and Middlesex two more — very like 



1832] CONVERSATION WITH LOED MELBOURNE. 277 

Grey's proposition which Harrowby rejected — but I suggested 
keeping the whole and varying the qualification, to which he 
thought no objection would lie. 

At the Duchesse de Dino's ball the night before last I had 
a very anxious conversation with Melbourne about it all. 
He said that 'he really believed there was no strong feeling 
in the country for the measure.' We talked of the violence 
of the Tories, and their notion that they could get rid of the 
whole thing. I said the notion was absurd now, but that I 
fully agreed with him about the general feeling. ' Why, then,' 
said he, ' might it not be thrown out ? ' — a consummation I 
really believe he would rejoice at, if it could be done. I said 
because there was a great part}?- which would not let it, which 
would agitate again, and that the country wished ardently to 
have it settled ; that if it could be disposed of for good and 
all, it would be a good thing indeed, but that this was now 
become impossible. I asked him if his colleagues were im- 
pressed as he was with this truth, and he said, ' ISTo.' I told 
him he ought to do everything possible to enforce it, and 
to make them moderate, and induce them to concede, to 
which he replied, 'What difficulty can they have in swallow- 
ing the rest after they have given up the rotten boroughs ? 
That is, in fact, the essential part of the Bill, and the truth is 
I do not see how the Government is to be carried on without 
them. Some means may be found ; a remedy may possibly 
present itself, and it may work in practice better than we 
now know of, but I am not aware of any, and I do not see 
how any Government can be carried on when these are swept 
away.' This was, if not his exact w T ords, the exact sense, 
and a pretty avowal for a man to make at the eleventh hour 
who has been a party concerned in this Bill during the other 
ten. I told him I agreed in every respect, but that it was 
too late to discuss this now, and that the rotten boroughs 
were past saving, that as to the minor points, the Waverers 
thought them of importance, looked upon them as securities, 
compensations, and moreover as what would save their own 
honour, and that the less their real importance was the more 
easily might they be conceded. We had a great deal more 



278 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

talk, but then it is all talk, and a qiioi bon with a man who 
holds these opinions and acts as he does ? Let it end as it 
may, the history of the Bill, and the means by which it has 
been conceived, brought forward, supported, and opposed, will 
be most curious and instructive. The division in the Lords 
must be very close indeed. 

OrlofF, who was looked for like the Messiah, at last made 
his appearance a few days ago, a great burly Russian, but no 
ratification yet. l 

I have refrained for a long time from writing down any- 
thing about the cholera, because the subject is intolerably 
disgusting to me, and I have been bored past endurance by 
the perpetual questions of every fool about it. It is not, 
however, devoid of interest. In the first place, what has 
happened here proves that c the people ' of this enlightened, 
reading, thinking, reforming nation are not a whit less bar- 
barous than the serfs in Russia, for precisely the same pre- 
judices have been shown here that were found at St. Peters- 
burg and at Berlin. The disease has undoubtedly appeared 
(hitherto) in this country in a milder shape than elsewhere, 
but the alarm at its name was so great that the Government 
could do no otherwise than take such precautions and means 
of safety as appeared best to avert the danger or mitigate its 
consequences. Here it came, and the immediate effect was 
a great inconvenience to trade and commerce, owing to 
restrictions, both those imposed by foreigners generally on 
this country and those we imposed ourselves between the 
healthy and unhealthy places. This begot complaints and 
disputes, and professional prejudices and jealousies urged a 
host of combatants into the field, to fight about the existence 
or non-existence of cholera, its contagiousness, and any col- 
lateral question. The disposition of the public was (and is) 
to believe that the whole thing was a humbug-, and accord- 
ingly plenty of people were found to write in that sense, and 
the press lent itself to propagate the same idea. The disease, 
however, kept creeping on, the Boards of Health which were 
everywhere established immediately became odious, and the 
1 [Of the Belgian Treaty.] 



1832] THE CHOLEKA IN ENGLAND. 279 

vestries and parishes stoutly resisted all pecuniary demands 
for the purpose of carrying into effect the recommendations 
of the Central Board or the orders of the Privy Council. In 
this town the mob has taken the part of the anti-eholerites, 
and the most disgraceful scenes have occurred. The other 
day a Mr. Pope, head of the hospital in Marylebone (Cholera 
Hospital) came to the Council Office to complain that a 
patient who was being removed with his own consent had 
been taken out of his chair by the mob and carried back, 
the chair broken, and the bearers and surgeon hardly 
escaping with their lives. Purious contests have taken place 
about the burials, it having been recommended that bodies 
should be burned directly after death, and the most violent 
prejudice opposing itself to this recommendation ; in short, 
there is no end to the scenes of uproar, violence, and brutal 
ignorance that have gone on, and this on the part of the 
lower orders, for whose especial benefit all the precautions 
are taken, and for whose relief large sums have been raised 
and all the resources of charity called into activity in every 
part of the town. The awful thing is the vast extent of 
misery and distress which prevails, and the evidence of the 
rotten foundation on which the whole fabric of this gorgeous 
society rests, for I call that rotten which exhibits thousands 
upon thousands of human beings reduced to the lowest stage 
of moral and physical degradation, with no more of the ne- 
cessaries of life than serve to keep body and soul together, 
whole classes of artisans without the means of subsistence. 
However complicated and remote the causes of this state of 
things, the manifestations present themselves in a frightful 
presence and reality, and those whose ingenuity, and experi- 
ence, and philosophical views may enable them accurately to 
point out the causes and the gradual increase of this distress 
are totally unable to suggest a remedy or to foresee an end 
to it. Can such a state of things permanently go on ? can 
any reform ameliorate it ? Is it possible for any country to 
be considered in a healthy condition when there is no such 
thing as a general diffusion of the comforts of life (varying of 
course with every variety of circumstance which can affect 



280 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

the prosperity of individuals or of classes), but when the ex- 
tremes prevail of the most unbounded luxury and enjoyment 
and the most dreadful privation and suffering ? To imagine 
a state of society in which everybody should be well off, or 
even tolerably well off, would be a mere vision, as long as 
there is a preponderance of vice and folly in the world. 
There will always be effects commensurate with their causes, 
but it has not always been, and it certainly need not be, that 
the majority of the population should be in great difficulty, 
struggling to keep themselves afloat, and, what is worse, in 
uncertainty and in doubt whether they can earn subsistence 
for themselves and their families. Such is the case at pre- 
sent, and I believe a general uncertainty pervades every class 
of society, from the highest to the lowest ; nobody looks upon 
any institution as secure, or any interest as safe, and it is only 
because those universal feelings of alarm which are equally 
diffused throughout the mass but slightly affect each indi- 
vidual atom of it that we see the world go on as usual, eating, 
drinking, laughing, and dancing, and not insensible to the 
danger, though apparently indifferent about it. 

April 4th. — Chaxles Wood l came to me yesterday, and 
brought a paper showing the various effects of a different 
qualification from 10Z. to 40/. for the metropolitan districts, 
to talk over the list, but principally to get me to speak to 
Harrowby about a foreseen difficulty. The first clause in 
the Bill enacts that fifty-six boroughs be disfranchised. This 
gave great offence in the House of Commons, was feebly 
defended, but carried by the majority, which was always 
ready and required no reason ; it was an egregious piece 
of folly and arrogance there, here it presents a real embar- 
rassment. I told him I knew Harrowby had an invincible 
repugnance to it, and that the effect would be very bad if 
they split upon the first point. He said he should not de- 
fend it, that all reason was against it, but that there it was,, 
and how was it to be got rid of? I suggested that it should 
be passed over, and that they should go at once to the boroughs 

1 [Mr. Charles Wood, afterwards Viscount Halifax, but at this time 
private Secretary to Earl Grey, whose daughter he married.] 



1832] A DIFFICULTY AT SCHEDULE A. 281 

seriatim. He said if that clause was omitted a suspicion 
would immediately arise that there was an intention of 
altering Schedule A, and nothing would avert that but 
getting through a great part of it before Easter, and that this 
might be difficult, as the longest time thej could expect to sit 
would be three days in Passion Week. He talked a great 
deal about the country expecting this, and that they would 
not be satisfied if it was nob done, and all the usual jargon 
of the Eeformers, which it was not worth while to dispute, 
and it ended by my promising to talk to Lord Harrowby 
about it. This I did last night, and he instantly flew into 
a rage. He said 'lie would not be dragged through the 
mire by those scoundrels. It was an insolence that was 
not to be borne ; let them make their Peers if they would, not 
Hell itself should make him vote for fifty -six ; he would vote 
for sixty-six or any number but that, that he would not split 
with the Tories on the first vote ; if indeed they would consent 
to fifty- six he would, or to anything else they would agree 
to, but if the Government brought this forward no considera- 
tion on earth should prevent his opposing it.' We then 
discussed the whole matter, with the proposed amendments 
which Wood and I had talked over with reference to the 
metropolitan members and town and county voting, and I am 
to go to-day and propose that after the second reading is 
carried they should adjourn till after Easter, and give a little 
time for the excitement (which there must be) to subside, and 
to see how matters stand, and what probability there is of 
getting the thing through quietly. 

April 6th. — I called on the Duke of Richmond on Wednes- 
day morning, and told him what had passed between Wood 
and me, and Lord Harrowby and me afterwards. He was 
aware of the difficulty, and regretted it the more because he 
might have to defend it in the House of Lords. He wished 
me very much to go to Downing Street and see Lord Grey 
himself if possible before the levee, and he suggested that the 
words fifty-six might be left in blank by Lord Grey's own 
motion, that this would be in conformity with the forms of the 
House. I set off, but calling at home on my way found Lord 



282 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

Harrowby at my door. He came in, and was anxious to know 
if I had said anything ; he was more quiet than the night be- 
fore, but still resolved not to agree to fifty-six, though anxious 
to have the matter compromised in some way. Lord Harrowby 
wanted to adjourn after the second reading, but owned that 
the best effect would be to get through Schedule A before 
Easter. Yesterday I saw Wood ; he harped upon the difficulty 
and the old strain of the country. I suggested the point of 
form which Richmond had mentioned, but he said that could 
not be now in the Bill, as it was sent up from the Commons, 
that if they were beaten on fifty-six the country would consider 
at tantamount to throwing out Schedule A, and would highly 
approve of a creation of Peers, and that, in fact (if they 
wished it), it would be the best opportunity they could have. 
I told him that it would heap ridicule upon all the antecedent 
proceedings, and the pretext must be manifest, as it would 
appear in the course of the discussions what the real reason 
was. In the middle of our conversation Ell ice came in, and 
directly asked if my friends would swallow fifty-six, to which 
I said, ' No. 5 We had then a vehement dispute, but at last 
Wood turned him out, and he and I resumed. We finally 
agreed that I should ask Lord Harrowby whether, if Lord 
Grey of his own accord proposed to leave out the words fifty- 
six, but with an expression of his opinion that this must be 
the number, he (Lord Harrowby) would meet him with a 
corresponding declaration that he objected to the specifica- 
tion of the number in the clause, without objecting to the 
extent of the disfranchisement, it being always understood 
that what passes between us is unauthorised talk, and to 
commit nobody — ' without prejudice,' as the lawyers say. 

I heard yesterday, however, from Keate, who is attend- 
ing me (and who is the King's surgeon, and sees him when 
he is in town), that he saw his Majesty after the levee on 
Wednesday, and that he was ill, out of sorts, and in con- 
siderable agitation ; that he enquired of him about his health, 
when the King said he had much to annoy him, and that 
4 many things passed there (pointing to the Cabinet, out of 
which he had just come) which were by no means agreeable, 



1832] THE KING'S KELUCTANCE TO MAKE PEEKS. 283 

and that lie had had more than usual to occupy him that 
morning.' Keate said he was very sure from his manner 
that something unpleasant had occurred. This was, I have 
since discovered, the question of a creation of Peers again 
brought forward, and to which the King's aversion has re- 
turned so much so that it is doubtful if he will after all 
consent to a large one. It seems that unless the Peers are 
made (in the event of the necessity arising) Brougham and 
Althorp will resign ; at least so they threaten. I have seen 
enough of threats, and doubts, and scruples, to be satisfied 
that there is no certainty that any of them will produce 
the anticipated effects, but I am resolved I will try, out of 
these various elements, if I cannot work out something which 
may be serviceable to the cause itself, though the materials 
I have to work with are scanty. The Ministers were all day 
yesterday settling who the new Peers shall be, so seriously 
are they preparing for the coup. They had already fixed 
upon Lords Molyneux, Blandford, Kennedy, Ebrington, 
Cavendish, Brabazon, and Charles Pox, Littleton, Portman, 
Frederick Lawley, Western, and many others, and this would 
be what Lord Holland calls assimilating the House of Lords 
to the spirit of the other House, and making it harmonise 
with the prevailing sense of the people. 

April 8th. — Lord Harrowby was out of town when I called 
there on Friday, so I wrote to him the substance of my con- 
versation with Wood. Yesterday he returned. In the evening 
I met Wood at dinner at Lord Holland's, when he told me 
that he found on the part of his friends more reluctance than 
he had expected to give up the fifty-six, that he had done 
all he could to persuade them, but they made great objections. 
Moreover he had had a conversation with Sandon which he did 
not quite like, as he talked so much of holding the party to- 
gether. All this was to make me think they are stouter than 
they really are, for I am better informed than he thinks for. 

Yesterday morning I got more correct information about 
what had passed with the King. Lord Grey went to him 
with a minute of Cabinet requiring that he should make 



284 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

Peers in case the second reading was thrown out. 1 To this 
he demurred, raised difficulties and doubts, which naturally 
enough alarm the Government very much. However, when 
he got back to Windsor he wrote two letters, explaining his 
sentiments, from which it appears that he has great reluctance, 
that he will do it, but will not give any pledge beforehand, 
that he objects to increasing the Peerage, and wants to call 
up eldest sons and make Irish and Scotch Peers, that he did 
not say positively he would make the Peers, but that he 
would be in the way, and come up when it was necessary. 
They think that he has some idea that his pledging himself 
beforehand (though in fact he did so two months ago) might 
be drawn into an improper precedent. However this may 
be, his reluctance is so strong that a great deal may be 
made of it, as it is probable (if he continues in the same 
mind, and is not turned by some violence of the Opposition) 
that he will resist still more making Peers when the Bill is 
in Committee to carry the details, some of which he himself 
wishes to see altered, but the difficulty is very great. It is 
impossible to communicate with the Tory leaders ; they will 
not believe what you tell them, and if they learnt the King's 
scruples they would immediately imagine that they might 
presume upon them to any extent, and stand out more 
obstinately than ever. I went to Harrowby last night, and 
imparted to him the state of things, which I shall do to 
nobody else. To Wharncliffe I dare not. He is not indis- 
posed to Wood's compromise, and I trust this will be settled, 
but he still leans to putting off the second reading till after 
Easter, and if the Tories also resolve upon that (which they 
are mightily disposed to do) he will not separate from them 
on that point, and they are sure to carry it. Unless this 
was accompanied with some declaration from them that 
they would be disposed to concede the great principles of 
the Bill, I think the Government would consider it such an 
indication of hostility as to call for an immediate creation 

1 [This Cabinet minute of the 3rd of April, 1832, and the King's remarks 
upon it, have been printed in the 'Correspondence of William IV. and Earl 
Grey,' vol. ii. p. 307.] 



1832] 'THE HUNCHBACK.' 285 

of Peers, and I doubt whether the King could or would 
resist. There are many reasons why it would be desirable 
to make the second reading a resting-place, and adjourn then 
till after Easter, provided all parties consented, but it would 
be very unwise to make it the subject of a contest, and no- 
body would ever believe that the real reason was not to get 
rid of Schedule A by hook or by crook, or of a good deal of 
it. Harrowby will, I am sure, not divide against them on 
this, and they will not give it up ; that there are means of 
resistance, if they were judiciously applied, I am sure, and 
if there were temper, discretion, and cordiality, the Bill 
might be licked into a very decent shape. 

I went to see Sheridan Knowles' new play the other 
night, 6 The Hunchback.' Yery good, and a great success. 
Miss Fanny Kemble acted really well — for the first time, in 
my opinion, great acting. I have not seen anything since 
Mrs. Siddons (and perhaps Miss O'lSTeill) so good. 

The Duke of Wellington made a very good speech on 
Irish affairs on Friday, one of his best, and he speaks 
admirably to points sometimes and on subjects he understands. 
I wish he had let alone that Irish Education — disgraceful 
humbug and cant. I don't know that there is anything 
else particularly new. Orloff is made a great rout with, but 
he don't ratify. The real truth is that the King of Holland 
holds out, and the other Powers delay till they see the result 
of our Reform Bill, thinking that the Duke of Wellington 
may return to power, and then they may make better terms 
for Holland and dictate to Belgium and to France. If the 
Reform Bill is carried, and Government stays in, they will 
ratify, and not till then. The cholera is disappearing here 
and in the country. 

April 9th. — Saw Lord Harrowby yesterday morning. He 
can't make up his mind what is best to be done, whether to go 
into Committee or not. He rather wishes to get through 
Schedule A, but he won't vote against the Tories if they 
divide on adjourning. Then went to Wood and told him 
there would be no difficulty about fifty-six. Lord Grey 
came in, and talked the whole thing over. He said he 



286 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

was ill— knocked up — that in his speech to-day he should 
be as moderate and tame as anybody could wish. From 
what Wood said, and he himself afterwards, I should 
think they wish to adjourn after the second reading, but to 
make a merit of it if they do. Duncannon, whom I saw 
afterwards, seemed to be of the same opinion, that it would 
be best not to sit in Passion Week. At night Wharncliffe 
came back from Yorkshire. He is all for getting into 
Schedule A, and making no difficulties about fifty-six or 
anything else, and Harrowby, now that he fancies the Govern- 
ment want to adjourn, rather wants not, suspecting some 
trick. Upon going all over the list, we make out the worst 
to give a majority of six, and the best of eighteen, but the 
Tories still count upon getting back some of our people. We 
had a grand hunt after Lord Gambier's proxy ; he sent it to 
Lord de Saumarez, who is laid up with the gout in Guernsey, 
and the difficulty was to get at Lord Gambier and procure 
another. At last I made Harrowby, who does not know 
him, write to him, and Wood sent a messenger after him, 
so we hope it will arrive in time. 

April 11th. — The day before yesterday Lord Grey intro- 
duced the Reform Bill in a speech of extreme moderation ; as 
he promised, it was very 'tame.' The night's debate was dull ; 
yesterday was better. Lord Mansfield made a fine speech 
against the Bill ; Harrowby spoke well, Wharncliffe ill. 
Nothing can equal the hot water we have been in — defections 
threatened on every side, expectations thwarted and doubts 
arising, betting nearly even. Even de Eos came to me in 
the morning and told me he doubted how he should vote ; that 
neither Harrowby nor Wharncliffe had put the question on 
the proper ground, and his reason for seceding from the 
Opposition was the menaced creation of Peers. I wrote to 
Harrowby and begged him to say something to satisfy tender 
consciences, and moved heaven and earth to keep De Eos 
and Coventry (who was slippery) right, and I succeeded — at 
least I believe so, for it is not yet over. Nothing can equal 
the anxiety out of doors and the intensity of the interest in 
the town, but the debate is far less animated than that of 



1832] REFORM BILL CARRIED IX THE HOUSE OF LORDS. 287 

last year. As to our business, it is ' la mer a boire,' with 
nobody to canvass or whip in, and not being a party. We 
shall, however, I believe, manage it, and but just. 

I saw Keate this morning, who had been with the King. 
His Majesty talked in high terms of Ellenborough and of 
Mansfield. It is difficult to count upon such a man, but if the 
second reading is passed I do not believe he will make Peers 
to carry any points in Committee, unless it be the very vital 
ones, but it is very questionable if the Opposition will fight 
the battle then at all, or, if they do, fight in a way to secure 
a fair, practical result. 

April 14th. — The Eeform Bill (second reading) was 
carried this morning at seven o'clock in the House of Lords 
by a majority of nine. The House did not sit yesterday. 
The night before Phillpotts, the Bishop of Exeter, made a 
grand speech against the Bill, full of fire and venom, very 
able. It would be an injury to compare this man with Laud ; 
he more resembles Gardiner ; had he lived in those days he 
would have been just such another, boiling with ambition, 
an ardent temperament, and great talents. He has a despe- 
rate and a dreadful countenance, and looks like the man he 
is. The two last days gave plenty of reports of changes 
either way, but the majority has always looked like from 
seven to ten. The House will adjourn on Wednesday, and 
go into Committee after Easter ; and in the meantime what 
negotiations and what difficulties to get over ! The Duke of 
Wellington and Lord Harrowby have had some good- 
humoured talk, and the former seems well disposed to join 
in amending the Bill, but the difficulty will be to bring these 
extreme and irritated parties to any agreement as to terms. 
The debate in the Lords, though not so good as last year, 
has been, as usual, much better than that in the Commons. 

The accounts from Paris of the cholera are awful, very 
different from the disease here. Is it not owing to our 
superior cleanliness, draining, and precautions ? There have 
been 1,300 sick in a day there, and for some days an average 
of 1,000; here we have never averaged above fifty, I think, 
and, except the squabbling in the newspapers, we have seen 



288 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

nothing of it whatever ; there many of the upper classes have 
died of it. Casimir Perier and the Duke of Orleans went to 
the Hotel Dieu, and the former was seized afterwards, and has 
been very ill, though they doubt if it really was cholera, as he 
is subject to attacks with the same symptoms. 

April lbth. — The debate in the House of Lords was closed 
by a remarkable reply from Lord Grey, full of moderation, 
and such as to hold out the best hopes of an adjustment of 
the question — not that it pacified the ultra-Tories, who were 
furious. The speech was so ill reported at that late hour 
that it is not generally known what he did say, and many of 
those who heard it almost doubt their own accuracy, or 
suspect that he went further than he intended, so unlike was 
it to his former violent and un}delding language. He said, 
with regard to a creation of Peers, that nothing would justify 
him in recommending the exercise of that prerogative but a 
collision between the two Houses of Parliament, and that in 
such a case (he is reported to have said) he should deem it 
his duty first to recommend a dissolution, and to ascertain 
whether the feeling of the country was with the other House 
(these were not the words, but to this effect). If this be at 
all correct, it is clear that he cannot make Peers to carry 
the clauses, for, in fact, the collision between the two Houses 
will not have arrived unless the Commons should reject any 
amendments which may be made by the Lords. The tone, 
however, of the violent supporters of Government is totally 
changed ; at Lord Holland's last night they were singing in 
a very different note, and, now, if the councils of the Lords 
are guided by moderation and firmness, they may deal with 
the Bill almost as they please ; but they must swallow 
Schedule A. The difficulties, however, are great ; the High 
Tories are exasperated and vindictive, and will fiercely fight 
against any union with the seceders. The Duke is moderate 
in his tone, ready to act cordially with all parties, but he 
owes the seceders a grudge, is anxious to preserve his in- 
fluence with the Tories, aud will probably insist upon 
mutilating the Bill more than will be prudent and feasible. 
The Harrowby and Wharncliffe party, now that the second 



1832] LOED WHAENCLIFFE AND LOED HAEEOWBY. 289 

reading it over, ceases to be a party. It was a patched-up, 
miscellaneous concern at best, of men -who were half 
reasoned, half frightened over, who could not bear separating 
from the Duke, long to return to him, and, besides, are 
ashamed of Wharncliffe as a chief. There never was such a 
' chef de circonstance.' He is a very honest man, with a 
right view of things and a fair and unprejudiced under- 
standing, vain and imprudent, without authority, command- 
ing no respect, and in a false position as the ephemeral leader 
he is, marching in that capacity pari passu with Harrowby, 
who is infinitely more looked up to, but whose bilious com- 
plexion prevents his mixing with society and engaging and 
persuading others to follow his opinions ; nor has he (Lord 
Harrowby) any plan or design beyond the object of the mo- 
ment. He has no thought of mixing again in public life, he 
does not propose to communicate with anybody on anything 
further than the middle course to be adopted now, and few 
people are disposed to sever the ties on which their future 
political existence depends for the sake of cultivating this 
short-lived connection. If the Government, therefore, looks 
to the seceders who have carried the question for them to 
carry other points, they will find it won't do, for their 
followers will melt into the mass of the anti-Reformers, who, 
though they will still frown upon the chiefs, will gladly take 
back the rank and file. A fortnight will elapse, in the course 
of which opportunities will be found of ascertaining the dis- 
position of the great party and the probability of an arrange- 
ment. 

The debate was good on Friday, but very inferior to the 
last. Phillpotts got a terrific dressing from Lord Grey, and 
was handled not very delicately by Goderich and Durham, 
though the latter was too coarse. He had laid himself very 
open, and, able as he is, he has adopted a tone and style 
inconsistent with his lawn sleeves, and unusual on the 
Episcopal Bench. He is carried away by his ambition and 
his alarm, and horrifies his brethren, who feel all the danger 
(in these times) of such a colleague. The episode of which 
vol. 11. u 



290 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

he was the object was, of course, the most amusing part of 
the whole. 

Newmarket, April 22nd. — 111 and laid up with the gout 
for this week past. Came here on Friday, the 20th. The 
carrying of the second reading of the Bill seems to have 
produced no effect. Everybody is gone out of town, the 
Tories in high dudgeon. The Duke of Wellington has 
entered a protest with all the usual objections, which has 
been signed by a whole rabble of Peers, but not by Lyndhurst, 
Ellenborough, or Carnarvon, who monopolise the brains of the 
party ; they declined. In the meantime things look better. 
Wharncliffe, Harrowby, and Haddington have had two in- 
terviews with Lyndhurst and Ellenborough, and though they 
did not go into particulars the result was satisfactory, and 
a strong disposition evinced to co-operation and moderation. 
It was agreed they should meet again next week, and see 
what could be arranged. On Eriday Palmerston sent to 
Wharncliffe and desired to see him. They met, and Pal- 
merston told him that he came from Lord Grey, who was 
desirous of having an interview with him, adding that Lord 
Grey had now become convinced that he might make much 
more extensive concessions than he had ever yet contem- 
plated. He added that Lord Grey would rather see Wharn- 
cliffe alone, without Harrowby, whose manner was so snappish 
and unpleasant that he could not talk so much at his ease 
as he would to Wharncliffe alone. Wharncliffe replied that 
he could have no objection to see Lord Grey, but that he 
must fairly tell him his situation was no longer the same, 
having put himself in amicable communication with Lynd- 
hurst and Ellenborough ; that the concurrence of the Tories 
was indispensable to him and his friends to effect the altera- 
tions they contemplated, and he could not do anything which 
might have to them the appearance of underhand dealing ; 
that he could tell Lyndhurst and Ellenborough, and if they 
made no objection he would see Lord Grey. Ellenborough 
was gone out of town, but he went to Lyndhurst, who im- 
mediately advised him to see Lord Grey, and said it was 
most desirable they should be made acquainted with the 



1832] MEETING OF LOED GEEY AND LOED WHAENCLIFFE. 291 

views and disposition of Government, and lie undertook to 
write word to the Duke of Wellington of all that had passed. 
Lord Grey was unable to leave Sheen yesterday, so it was 
arranged that the meeting should be delayed till Wharncliffe' s 
return to London. The Duke of Richmond has, however, got 
a letter of four sides from Grey, empowering him to treat here 
with Wharncliffe, and Stanley and Graham being expected, it 
is very likely some progress may be made. Nothing can 
promise better, and if the chiefs of the Tories can be brought 
to moderation the stupid obstinacy of the mass will not 
matter, and I do not think they will dare hold out, for when 
a negotiation on such a conciliatory basis is proposed, a 
terrible case would be made hereafter against those who should 
refuse to listen to it. The advantages are so clear that 
nothing would make them persist in the line of uncompro- 
mising opposition but an unconquerable repugnance to afford 
a triumph to the Waverers, which a successful termination 
would do ; not that they would profit by it, for they are so 
few, and those who will have been wrong so many, that 
clamour will silence justice, and a thousand excuses and 
pretences will be found to deprive them of their rightful 
credit. It is a long time — not probably since the days of 
Charles II. — that this place (Newmarket) has been the 
theatre of a political negotiation, and, conceding the import- 
ance of the subject, the actors are amusing — Richmond,. 
Graham, Wharncliffe, and myself. By-the-bye it is perfectly 
true that (if I have not mentioned it before) the Royal 
carriages were all ready the morning of the decision of the 
second reading to take the King to the House of Lords to 
prorogue Parliament, and on Tuesday the Peers would have 
appeared in the ' Gazette.' 

London, May 12th. — Nothing written for a long time, 
nor had I anything to write till a few days ago. From the 
time of Wharncliffe's departure I heard nothing, and I bitterly 
regret now not having been in town last week. 1 The Com- 

1 [It was on the 7th of May that the Lords went into Committee on the 
Bill, and Lord Lyndhurst's motion to postpone the (/j'sfranchising clauses 
until after the enfranchising clauses had been agreed to was carried by a 

T7 2 



292 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

mittee stood for Monday; on Friday se'nnight last I was 
at Buckenham, when the Duke of Butland told me he was 
going to London, that they meant to divide on Monday on 
a proposal to postpone Schedules A and B till after C and 
D, and expected to beat the Government ; I wrote by that 
post to Lad} r Harrowby, saying I hoped this was not true, 
and that if it was it appeared to me most injudicious. On 
Tuesday I received by the post a letter from Wharncliffe, 
saying that they had been in frequent communication with 
Ellenborough and Lyndhurst, that the Opposition were pre- 
pared to make great and satisfactory concessions, and he 
thought all would go off well. The only difficulty he appre- 
hended was from the postponement of the disfranchising 
clause, which the Tories insisted on, and to which he and 
Harrowby had thought it right to agree. The next day I 
received a second letter, with an account of the debate and 
its consequences, to which I wrote him a trimming reply, 
and another to Lady Harrowby, expressing my sentiments 
on their conduct on the occasion. Before all this happened 
Wharncliffe had had to encounter abuse of every kind, and 
he has certainly continued to play his cards in such a way, 
from first to last, as to quarrel with Whigs and Tories in suc- 
cession. With very good intentions, and very honest, he has 
exposed himself to every reproach of insincerity, intrigue, 
and double-dealing. 

On arriving in town I found a note from him, desiring 
I would see him and hear his defence of himself before I 
expressed elsewhere the opinion I had given to him. Ac- 
cordingly I went to Boodle's, where I found him, and he 
immediately began his case. He said that on his return to 
town he saw Lord Grey, who said that he wished to know 
what were the intentions of his party, and how far they 
were disposed to go, and what concessions they looked for. 
He replied that Lord Grey must understand that he now 

majority of thirty-five against the Government. The seventeen Peers who 
had assisted to carry 'the second reading on the 11th of April relapsed into 
the Conservative ranks, and the result was, for the moment, such as to stop 
the progress of the Bill and turn out the Government.] 



1832] DEFEAT OF GOVEKNMENT IN COMMITTEE. 293 

stood in a very different position, and that, reunited as he 
was with the Tories, he must act with them — much, in 
short, what he had before said to Palmer ston. They then 
discussed the question, and he said that there was one point 
for which Lord Grey ought to be prepared, and that he knew 
the Tories were much bent upon proposing the postponement 
of Schedules A and B. Lord Grey said this wouTdTbe pro- 
ductive of the greatest embarrassment, that it would be a 
thing they could not agree to, and he hoped he would do all 
in his power to prevent it, Wharncliffe said that he would 
endeavour, but he believed they were very eager about it, 
and he added that Lord Grey might be sure he would support 
nothing calculated to interfere with the essential provi- 
sions of the Bill. After this his and Harrowby's communi- 
cations with Ellenborough and his friends continued, and on 
the Saturday (I think) Lyndhurst told him that the Tories 
were so irrevocably bent upon this, and that they were so 
difficult to manage and so disposed to fly off, that it was 
absolutely necessary to give way to them, and it must be 
proposed, though he would gladly have waived it, but that 
was impossible; upon which Harrowby and Wharncliffe 
gave in and agreed to support it. One of them (Hadding- 
ton, I think) suggested that Wharncliffe ought to communi- 
cate this intention to Lord Grey, to which, however, Lyndhurst 
objected, said that the Tories were suspicious, had already 
taken umbrage at the communications between Wharncliffe 
and Grey, and that it must not be. To this prohibition 
Wharncliffe fatally submitted, and accordingly not a word 
was said by anybody till the afternoon of the debate, when 
just before it began Wharncliffe told the Duke of Richmond, 
who of course told Lord Grey. Wharncliffe at the same time 
had some conversation with John Russell and Stanley, who 
strongly deprecated this intention, but it was too late to 
arrange or compromise anything then. The debate came on ; 
the proposition was made in a very aggravating speech by 
Lyndhurst, and on its being carried Lord Grey threw up the 
Bill and the Government in a passion. It is the more remark- 
able that they should have taken this course at once, because 



294 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

they certainly had very strong reason to doubt whether the 
King would consent to a creation of Peers, though they pro- 
bably thought he might be bullied upon an occasion which 
they fancied they could turn to great account ; but he was 
stout and would not hear of it. 

The day after the debate Grey and Brougham went down 
to Windsor and proposed to the King to make fifty Peers. 
They took with them a minute of Cabinet signed by all the 
members except the Duke of Richmond. Palmerston pro- 
posed it in Cabinet, and Melbourne made no objection. His 
Majesty took till the next day to consider, when he accepted 
their resignations, which was the alternative they gave him. 
At the levee the same day nothing occurred; the King 
hardly spoke to the Duke, but he afterwards saw Lyndhurst 
(having sent for him). I do not know what passed between 
them, but the Duke of Wellington was soon sent for. The 
Duke and Lyndhurst endeavoured to prevail on Peel to take 
the Government upon himself, and the former offered to act 
in any capacity in which he could be useful, but Peel would 
not. Some communication also took place between Lynd- 
hurst and Harrowby, but the latter declared at once he would 
support the new Government, but not take office. When Peel 
finally declined, the Duke accepted, and yesterday at three 
o'clock he went to St. James's. The King saw Peel and the 
Speaker. Nothing is known of the formation of the Cabinet, 
but the reports were first that Alexander Baring was to be 
Chancellor of the Exchequer, and since that he has refused 
on account of his health, and that Lyndhurst is to go to the 
King's Bench, Tenterden to retire, and the Great Seal to be 
put in commission. 

The first act of the Duke was to advise the King to re- 
ject the address of the Birmingham Union, which he did, and 
said he knew of no such body. All very proper. In the 
morning I called upon Wood at the Treasury, to explain to 
him that I had never been cognisant of the late proceedings 
in the House of Lords, and that I was far from approving the 
conduct of my old associates. He said he had never believed 



1832] POSITION OF PARTIES. 295 

that I was any party to it, and regretted that I had not been 
in town, when it was just possible I might have persuaded 
them of the unworthiness of the course they were taking. 
He said that I did not know how bad it was, for that 
Wharncliffe had distinctly said that if such a thing was pro- 
posed he should oppose it, and that Palmerston was present 
when he said so. This Wharncliffe positively denies, and 
yesterday he went to Palmerston to endeavour to explain, 
taking with him a minute which he said he had drawn up at the 
time of all that passed, but which he had never before shown 
or submitted for correction, and which Palmerston told him 
was incorrect, inasmuch as it omitted that engagement. 
They are at issue as to the fact. The position of the re- 
spective parties is curious. The Waverers undertook a task 
of great difficulty with slender means, and they accomplished 
it with complete success. All turned out as they expected 
and desired, but, after having been in confidential communi- 
cation with both parties, they have contrived mortally to 
offend both, and to expose themselves to odium from every 
quarter, and to an universal imputation of insincerity and 
double-dealing, and this without any other fault than mis- 
management and the false position in which they found 
themselves, without influence or power, between two mighty 
parties. The Tories, who have exhibited nothing but obsti- 
nacy and unreasonableness, and who thwarted the Waverers 
by every means they could devise, have reaped all the bene- 
fit of their efforts, and that without admitting that they 
were right or thanking them for bringing matters to this 
pass. They are triumphant, in spite of all they did to pre- 
vent their own triumph, and have had all the spiteful 
pleasure of abuse and obloquy, all the glory of consistency, 
and the satisfaction of pertinacity, with all the advantages 
that an opposite line of conduct promised to give them. 
[Their triumph was of short duration, and nothing so com- 
plete as their final discomfiture.] 

The King took leave of his Ministers with a great effusion 
of tenderness, particularly to Richmond, whom he entreated 



296 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

to remain in office ; but I take it that he easily consoles him- 
self, and does not care much more for one Minister than 
another. 

The debate in the House of Commons was not so violent 
as might have been expected, and the Tories were greatly 
elated with the divisions on Ebrington's motion, because there 
was a majority less by fifty- six than on a similar motion 
when the Bill was rejected in October. The circumstances 
were, however, different, and some would not vote because 
they disapprove of creating Peers, which this vote would 
have committed them to approve of. There is so much of 
wonder, and curiosity, and expectation abroad that there is 
less of abuse and exasperation than might have been ex- 
pected, but it will all burst forth. The town is fearfully quiet. 
What is odd enough is that the King was hissed as he left 
London the other day, and the Duke cheered as he came out of 
the Palace. There have been some meetings, with resolutions 
to support the Bill, to express approbation of the Ministers, 
and to protest against the payment of taxes, and there will 
probably be a good deal of bustle and bluster here and else- 
where ; but I do not believe in real tumults, particularly when 
the rabble and the unions know that there is a Government 
which will not stand such things,and that they will not be able 
to bandy compliments with the Duke as they did with Althorp 
and John Russell, not but what much dissatisfaction and much 
disquietude must prevail. The funds have not fallen, which 
is a sign that there is no alarm in the City. At this early 
period of the business it is difficult to form any opinion of 
what will happen; the present Government in opposition 
will again be formidable, but I am disposed to think things 
will go on and right themselves ; we shall avoid a creation of 
Peers, but we must have a Reform Bill of some sort, and per- 
haps a harmless one after all, and if the elements of disorder 
can be resolved into tranquillity and order again, we must 
not quarrel with the means that have been employed, nor 
the quantum of moral injustice that has been perpetrated. 

The Tories are very indignant with Peel for not taking 
office, and if, as it is supposed, he is to support Government 



1832] PEEL EEFUSES TO TAKE OFEICE. 297 

and the Bill out of office, and when all is oyer come in, it is 
hardly worth while for such a farce to deprive the King and 
the country of his services in the way that they could be 
most useful, but he is still smarting under Catholic question 
reminiscences, while the Duke is more thick-skinned. After 
he had carried the Catholic question the world was prepared 
for a good deal of versatility on his part, but it was in mere 
derision that (after his speech on Eeform in 1830) it used to 
be said that he would very likely be found proposing a Bill of 
Reform, and here he is coming into office for the express 
purpose of carrying on this very Bill against which the other 
day he entered a protest which must stare him in the face 
through the whole progress of it, or, if not, to bring in 
another of the same character, and probably nearly of the 
same dimensions. Pretexts are, however, not wanting, and 
the necessity of supporting the King is made paramount to 
every other consideration. The Duke's worshippers (a nume- 
rous class) call this the finest action of his life, though it is 
difficult to perceive in what the grandeur of it consists, or 
the magnitude of the sacrifice. However, it is fair to wait 
a little, and hear from his own lips his exposition of the mode 
in which he intends to deal with this measure, and how he 
will reconcile what he has hitherto said with what he is now 
about to do. Talleyrand is of course in a state of great 
consternation, which will be communicated like an electrical 
shock to the Powers specially favoured and protected by the 
late Government — Leopold and Don Pedro, for instance. It 
will be a difficult thing for the Duke to deal with some of 
the questions on which he has committed himself pretty con- 
siderably while in opposition, both with respect to foreign 
politics and especially Irish Education. 

Monday, May 14th. — Nothing more was known yesterday, 
but everybody was congregated at the clubs, asking, discuss- 
ing, and wondering. There was a great meeting at Apsley 
House, when it was supposed everything was settled. The 
Household went yesterday to St. James's to resign their sticks 
and badges ; amongst the rest Lord Foley. The King was 
very civil to him ; made him sit down and said, ' Lord Foley, 



298 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

you are a young man.' c Sir, I am afraid I cannot flatter 
myself that I have any right to that appellation.' ' Oh, yes ; 
you are a young man — at all events in comparison with me — 
and you will probably come into office again ; but I am an old 
man, and I am afraid I shall not have the pleasure of seeing 
you there.' It is supposed that this coup has been preparing 
for some time. All the Royal Family, bastards and all, have 
been incessantly cit the King, and he has probably had more 
difficulty in the long run in resisting the constant importu- 
nity of his entourage, and of his womankind particularly, than 
the dictates of his Ministers ; and between this gradual but 
powerful impression, and his real opinion and fears, he was 
not sorry to seize the first good opportunity of shaking off 
the Whigs. When Lord Anglesey went to take leave of him 
at Windsor he was struck with the change in his sentiments, 
and told Lady Anglesey so, who repeated it to my brother. 

It is gratifying to find that those with whom I used to 
dispute, and who would hear of nothing but rejecting the 
second reading, now admit that my view was the correct one? 
and Vesey Fitzgerald, with whom I had more than one dis- 
cussion, complimented me very handsomely upon the justifi- 
cation of my view of the question which the event had 
afforded. The High Tories, of course, will never admit that 
they could have been wrong, and have no other resource but 
to insist boldly that the King never would have made Peers 
at all. 1 

London, May 17th. — The events of the last few days have 
passed with a rapidity which hardly left time to think upon 
them — such sudden changes and transitions from rage to 
triumph on one side, and from foolish exultation to mortifica- 
tion and despair on the other. The first impression was that 
the Duke of Wellington would succeed in forming a Govern- 
ment, with or without Peel. The first thing he did was to try 

1 [Everyone knows how short-lived were the expectations caused by the 
temporary resignation of Lord Grey's Govern ment. It will be seen in the 
following pages how soon the vision passed away ; but the foregoing* pas- 
sages are retained precisely because they contain a vivid and faithful picture 
of the state of opinion at the moment. ] 



1832] WELLINGTON'S EFFORTS TO FORM A MINISTRY. 299 

and prevail upon Peel to be Prime Minister, but he was inexor- 
able. He then turned to Baring, 1 who, after much hesitation, 
agreed to be Chancellor of the Exchequer. The work went 
on, but with difficult j, for neither Peel, Goulburn, nor Croker 
would take office. They then tried the Speaker, who was 
mightily tempted to become Secretary of State, but still 
doubting and fearing, and requiring time to make up his 
mind. At an interview with the Duke and Lyndhurst at 
Apsley House he declared his sentiments on the existiug 
state of affairs in a speech of three hours, to the unutterable 
disgust of Lyndhurst, who returned home, flung himself into 
a chair, and said that 'he could not endure to have anything 
to do with such a damned tiresome old bitch.' After these 
three hours of oratory Manners Sutton desired to have till 
the next morning (Monday) to make up his mind, which he 
again begged might be extended till the evening. On that 
evening (Monday) ensued the memorable night in the House 
of Commons, which everybody agrees was such a scene of 
violence and excitement as never had been exhibited within 
those walls. Tavistock told me he had never heard anything at 
all like it, and to his dying day should not forget it. The House 
was crammed to suffocation; every violent sentiment and vitu- 
perative expression was received with shouts of approbation, 
yet the violent speakers were listened to with the greatest at- 
tention. 2 Tom Duncombe made one of his blustering Radical 
harangues, full of every sort of impertinence, which was re- 
ceived with immense applause, but which contrasted with an 
admirable speech, full of dignity, but also of sarcasm and 
severity, from John Russell — the best he ever made. The con- 
duct of the Duke of Wellington in taking office to carry the Bill, 
which was not denied, but which his friends feebly attempted 
to justify, was assailed with the most merciless severity, and 
(what made the greatest impression) was condemned (though 
in more measured terms) by moderate men and Tories, such 
as Inglis and Davies Gilbert. Baring, who spoke four times, 

1 [Alexander Baring afterwards Lord Ashburton.] 

2 [The debate arose on a petition of the City of London, praying- that the 
House would refuse supplies until the Reform Bill had become law.] 



300 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

at last proposed that there should be a compromise, and that 
the ex- Ministers should resume their seats and cany the 
Bill. This extraordinary proposition was drawn from him 
by the state of the House, and the impossibility he at once 
saw of forming a new Government, and without any previous 
concert with the Duke, who, however, entirely approved of 
what he said. After the debate Baring and Sutton went to 
Apsley House, and related to the Duke what had taken 
place, the former saying he would face a thousand devils 
rather than such a House of Commons. From that moment 
the whole thing was at an end, and the next morning (Tues- 
day) the Duke repaired to the King, and told him that he 
could not form an Administration. This communication, for 
which the debate of the previous night had prepared every- 
body, was speedily known, and the joy and triumph of the 
Whigs were complete. 

The King desired the Duke and Lyndhurst (for they went 
together) to advise him what he should do. They advised 
him to write to Lord Grey (which he did), informing him that 
the Duke had given up the commission to form a Govern- 
ment, that he had heard of what had fallen from Mr. Baring 
in the House of Commons the night before on the subject of 
a compromise, and that he wished Lord Grey to return and 
resume the Government upon that principle. Lord Grey 
sent an answer full of the usual expressions of zeal and re- 
spect, but saying that he could give no answer until he had 
consulted his colleagues. He assembled his Cabinet, and at 
five o'clock the answer was sent. 1 

Yesterday morning Lord Grey saw the King ; but up to 
last night nothing was finally settled, everything turning 
upon the terms to be exacted, some of the violent of the 
party desiring they should avail themselves of this oppor- 
tunity to make Peers, both to show their power and increase 
their strength; the more moderate, including Lord Grey 
himself and many of the old Peer-makers, were for sparing 
the King's feelings and using their victory with moderation, 

1 [These communications have been published in the ' Correspondence of 
Earl Grey with William IV.,' vol. ii. pp. 406-411.] 



1832] TKItDIPH OF THE WHIGS. 801 

all, however, agreeing that the only condition on which they 
could return was the certainty of carrying the Eeforni 
Bill unaltered, either by a creation of Peers or by the 
secession of its opponents. Up to the present moment 
the matter stands thus : the King at the mercy of the "Whigs, 
just as averse as ever to make Peers, the violent wishing to 
press him, the moderate wishing to spare him, all parties 
railing at each other, the Tories broken and discomfited, and 
meditating no further resistance to the Reform Bill. The 
Duke is to make his expose to-night. 

Peel, who has kept himself out of the scrape, is strongly 
suspected of being anything but sorry for the dilemma into 
which the Duke has got himself, and they think that he 
secretly encouraged him to persevere, with promises of pre- 
sent support and future co-operation, with a shrewd anticipa- 
tion of the fate that awaited him. I am by no means indis- 
posed to give credit to this, for I well remember the wrath of 
Peel when the Duke's Government was broken up in 1830, and 
the various instances of secret dislike and want of real cordi- 
ality which have peeped from under a decent appearance of 
union and friendship. Nothing can be more certain than that 
he is in high spirits in the midst of it all, and talks with great 
complacency of its being very well as it is, and that the sal- 
vation of character is everything ; and this from him, who 
fancies he has saved his own, and addressed to those who 
have forfeited theirs, is amusing. 

The joy of the King at what he thought was to be his 
deliverance from the Whigs was unbounded. He lost no 
time in putting the Duke of Wellington in possession of 
everything that had taken place between him and them upon 
the subject of Reform, and with regard to the creation of 
Peers, admitting that he had consented, but saying he had 
been subjected to every species of persecution. His ignorance, 
weakness, and levity put him in a miserable light, and prove 
him to be one of the silliest old gentlemen in his dominions ; 
but I believe he is mad, for yesterday he gave a great dinner 
to the Jockey Club, at which (notwithstanding his cares) he 
seemed in excellent spirits ; and after dinner he made a 



302 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

number of speeches, so ridiculous and nonsensical, beyond 
all belief but to those who heard them, rambling from one 
subject to another, repeating the same thing Over and over 
again, and altogether such a mass of confusion, trash, and 
imbecility as made one laugh and blush at the same time. 

As soon as the Duke had agreed to try and form a 
Government he applied to the Tories, who nearly all agreed 
to support him, and were prepared to go to all lengths, even 
to that of swallowing the whole Bill if necessary ; the Duke 
of Newcastle particularly would do anything. These were 
the men who were so squeamish that they could not be 
brought to support amendments even, unless they were per- 
mitted to turn the schedules upside-down, straining at gnats 
out of office and swallowing camels in. It is remarkable 
that after the sacrifice Wharncliffe made to re-ingratiate 
himself with the Tories, incurring the detestation and abuse 
of the Whigs, and their reproach of bad faith, the former 
have utterly neglected him, taking no notice of him whatever 
during the whole of their proceedings from the moment of 
the division, leaving him in ignorance of their plans and 
intentions, never inviting him to airy of their meetings, and 
although a communication was made by Lyndhurst to 
Harrowby (they wanted Harrowby to be Prime Minister), 
the latter was not at liberty to impart it to Wharncliffe. It 
is not possible to be more deeply mortified than he is at the 
treatment he has experienced from these allies after having 
so committed himself. From the account of the King's 
levity throughout these proceedings, I strongly suspect that 
(if he lives) he will go mad. While the Duke and Lyndhurst 
were with him, at one of the most critical moments (I forget 
now at which) he said, ' I have been thinking that something 
is wanting with regard to Hanover. Duke, you are now my 
Minister, and I beg you will think of this ; I should like to 
have a slice of Belgium, which would be a convenient addition 
to Hanover. Pray remember this,' and then resumed the 
subject they were upon. 

May 19th. — The night before last the Duke made his 
statement. It was extremely clear, but very bald, and left 



1832] THE KING'S LETTEE TO THE PEEES. 303 

liis case just where it was, as he did not say anything that 
everybody did not know before. His friends, however, 
extolled it as a masterpiece of eloquence and a complete 
vindication of himself. The Tory Lords who spoke after him 
bedaubed him with praise, and vied with each other in 
expressions of admiration. These were Carnarvon, Win- 
chelsea, and Haddington. There was not one word from 
the Duke (nor from the others) indicative of an intention to 
secede, which was what the Government expected. His 
speech contained a sort of covert attack upon Peel ; in fact, 
he could not defend himself without attacking Peel, for if the 
one was in the right in taking office the other must have been 
in the wrong in refusing to join him. There was nothing, 
however, which was meant as a reproach, though out of the 
House the Duke's friends do not conceal their anger that 
Peel would not embark with hi in in his desperate enterprise. 

Lyndhurst was exceedingly able, highly excited, very 
eloquent, and contrived to make his case a good one. It was 
a fine display and very short. Carnarvon and Mansfield 
were outrageously violent, but both in their way clever, and 
parts of the speech of the latter were eloquent. Lord Grey was 
excellent, short, very temperate and judicious, exactly what 
was requisite and nothing more. Nobody else spoke on his 
side, except Mulgrave at the end. 

The debate, however interesting, left the whole matter in 
uncertainty ; and the next day the old question began again. 
What was to be done — Peers or no Peers ? A Cabinet sat 
nearly all day, and Lord Grey went once or twice to the 
King. He, poor man, was at his wits' end, and tried an 
experiment (not a very constitutional one) of his own by 
writing to a number of Peers, entreating them to withdraw 
their opposition to the Bill. These letters were written (I 
think) before the debate. On Thursday nothing was settled, 
and at another meeting of the Cabinet a minute was drawn up 
agreeing to offer again the same advice to the King. Before 
this was acted upon Richmond, who had been absent, arrived, 
and he prevailed upon his colleagues to cancel it. In the 
meantime the Duke of Wellington, Lyndhurst, and other 



304 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

Peers had given the desired assurances to the King, which 
he communicated to Lord Grey. These were accepted as 
sufficient securities, and declarations made accordingly in 
both Houses of Parliament. If the Ministers had again gone 
to the King with this advice, it is impossible to say how it 
would have ended, for he had already been obstinate, and 
might have continued so on this point, and he told Lord 
Yerulam that he thought it would be contrary to his corona- 
tion oath to make Peers. Our princes have strange notions 
of the obligations imposed by their coronation oath. 

On Thursday in the House of Commons Peel made his 
statement, in which, with great civility and many expressions 
of esteem and admiration of the Duke, he pronounced as 
bitter a censure of his conduct, while apparently confining 
himself to the defence of his own, as it was possible to do, 
and as such it was taken. I have not the least doubt that he 
did it con amore, and that he is doubly rejoiced to be out of 
the scrape himself and to leave others in it. 

May Slst. — Since I came back from Newmarket there has 
not been much to write about. A calm has succeeded the 
storm. Last night Schedules A and B were galloped 
through the Committee, and they finished the business. On 
Thursday next the Bill will probably be read a third time. 
In the House of Lords some dozen Tories and Waverers have 
continued to keep up a little skirmish, and a good deal of 
violent language has been bandied about, in which the Whigs, 
being the winners, have shown the best temper. In society 
the excitement has ceased, but the bitterness remains. The 
Tories are, however, so utterly defeated, and the victory of 
their opponents is so complete, that the latter can afford to 
be moderate and decorous in their tone and manner; and the 
former are exceedingly sulky, cockering up each other with 
much self-gratulation and praise, but aware that in the 
opinion of the mass of mankind they are covered with odium, 
ridicule, and disgrace. Peel and the Duke are ostensibly 
great friends, and the ridiculous farce is still kept up of 
each admiring what he would not do himself, but what the 
other did. 



1832] FAVOUEITES 0? LOUIS XVIII. 305 

June 1st. — Met the Duke of Wellington at dinner yes- 
terday, and afterwards had a long talk with him, not on 
politics. I never see and converse with him without re- 
proaching myself for the sort of hostility I feel and express 
towards his political conduct, for there are a simplicity, a 
gaiety, and natural urbanity and good-humour in him, which 
are remarkably captivating in so great a man. We talked 
of Dumont's book and Louis XVIII. 's ' Memoirs.' I said I 
thought the ' Memoirs ' were not genuine. He said he was 
sure they were, that they bore the strongest internal evidence 
of being so, particularly in their accurac} 7 as to dates, that he 
was the best chronologist in the world, and that he knew the 
day of the week of every event of importance. He once 
asked the Duke when he was born, and when he told him the 
day of the month and year, he at once said it was on a Tuesday; 
that he (the Duke) had remembered that throughout the book 
the day of the week was always mentioned, and many of the 
anecdotes he had himself heard the King tell. He then 
talked of him, and I was surprised to hear him say that 
Charles X. was a cleverer man, as far as knowledge of the 
world went, though Louis XVIII. was much better informed 
— a most curious remark, considering the history and end of 
each. [Nothing could be more mistaken and untrue than 
this opinion.] That Louis XVIII. was always governed, 
and a favourite indispensable to him. At the Congress of 
Vienna the Duke was depnted to speak to M. de Blacas, his 
then favourite, and tell him that his unpopularitj r was so 
great in France that it was desirable he should not return 
there. Blacas replied, ' You don't know the King ; he must 
have a favourite, and he had better have me than another. 
I shall go ; he will have another, and you should take pains 
to put a gentleman in that situation, for he is capable of 
taking the first person that finds access to him and the 
opportunity of pleasing him.' He added that he should not 
wonder if he took Fouche. He did not take Fouche, who was 
not aware of the part he might have played, but he took De 
Cazes, who governed him entirely. This continued till the 
Royal Family determined to get rid of him, and by threaten- 
VOL. ir. x 



306 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

ing to make an esclanclre and leave the chateau they at last 
succeeded, and De Cazes was sent as Ambassador to London. 
Then the King wrote to him constantly, sending him verses 
and literary scraps. The place remained vacant till accident 
threw Madame du Cayla in his way. 1 She was the daughter 
of Talon, who had been concerned in the affair of the Marquis 
de Favras, and she sent to the King to say she had some papers 
of her father's relating to that affair, which she should like 
to give into his own hands. He saw her and was pleased 
with her. The Royal Family encouraged this new taste, in 
order to get rid entirely of De Cazes, and even the Duchesse 
d'Angouleme promoted her success. It was the same thing 
to him to have a woman as a man, and there was no sexual 
question in the matter, as what he wanted was merely some 
one to whom he could tell everything, consult with on all 
occasions, and with whom he could bandy literary trifles. 
Madame du Cayla, who was clever, was speedily installed, and 
he directly gave up De Cazes. He told the Duke that he 
was hrouille with De Cazes, who had behaved very ill to him, 
but he had nothing specific to allege against him, except 
that his manner to him was not what it ought to have been. 
The Ministers paid assiduous court to Madame du Cayla, 
imparted everything to her, and got her to say what they 
wanted said to the King ; she acted all the part of a mistress, 
except the essential, of which there never was any question. 
She got great sums of money from him and very valuable 
presents. 

June ISth. — Breakfasted on Thursday with Rogers, and 
yesterday at the Athenseum with Henry Taylor, and met Mr. 
Charles Austin, a lawyer, clever man, and Radical. The Bills 
are jogging on and there is a comparative calm. The Whigs 
swear that the Reformed Parliament will be the most aristo- 
cratic we have ever seen, and Ellice told me that they cannot 
hear of a single improper person likely to be elected for any 
of the new places. [Their choice did not correspond with 
this statement of their disposition.] The metropolitan dis- 

1 [This lady has already been noticed in a previous portion of these 
Memoirs, -when she visited England. See vol. i. p. 215.] 



1832] CHARACTER OF WILLIAM IV. 307 

tricts want rank and talent. The Government and their 
people have now found out what a fool the King is, and it is 
very amusing to hear them on the subject. Formerly, when 
they thought they had him fast, he was very honest and 
rather wise ; now they find him rather shuffling and exceed- 
ingly silly. When Normanby went to take leave of him on 
going to Jamaica, he pronounced a harangue in favour of 
the slave trade, of which he has always been a great ad- 
mirer, and expressed sentiments for which his subjects would 
tear him to pieces if they heard them. It is one of the great 
evils of the recent convulsion that the King's imbecility has 
been exposed to the world, and in his person the regal 
authority has fallen into contempt ; his own personal un- 
popularity is not of much consequence as long as it does not 
degrade his office ; that of George IV. never did, so little so 
that he could always as King cancel the bad impressions 
which he made in his individual capacity, and he frequently. 
did so. Walter Scott is arrived here, dying. A great 
mortality among great men ; Goethe, Perier, Champollion, 
Cuvier, Scott, Grant, Mackintosh, all died within a few weeks 
of each other. 

June 25th. — At Fern Hill all last week ; a great party, 
nothing but racing and gambling ; then to Shepperton, and 
to town on Saturday. The event of the races was the King's 
having his head knocked with a stone. It made very little 
sensation on the spot, for he was not hurt, and the fellow 
was a miserable-looking ragamuffin. It, however, produced 
a great burst of loyalty in both Houses, and their Majesties 
were loudly cheered at Ascot. The Duke of Wellington, who 
had been the day before mobbed in London, also reaped a 
little harvest of returning popularity from the assault, and 
so far the outrages have done rather good than harm. 

July 12th. — The suttee case was decided at the Privy 
Council on Saturday last, and was not uninteresting. The 
Chancellor, Lord President, Graham, John Eussell and Grant, 
Sir Edward East, the Master of Rolls, Vice-Chancellor, Lord 
Amherst, and Lord Wellesley were present (the latter not the 
last day). Lushington was for the appeal, and Home and 

x 2 



308 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. ("Chap. XVIII. 

Starkie against. The former made two very able and ingenious 
speeches ; when the counsel withdrew the Lords gave their 
opinions seriatim. Leach made a very short and very neat 
speech, condemning the order l of the Governor-General, but 
admitting the danger of rescinding it, and recommending, 
therefore, that the execution of it should be suspended. Sir 
Edward East, in a long, diffusive harangue, likewise con- 
demned the order, but was against suspension; Sir James 
Graham was against the order, but against suspension ; Lord 
Amherst the same. The rest approved of the order altogether. 
John Eussell gave his opinion very well. The Chancellor was 
prolix and confused ; he hit upon a bit of metaphysics in one 
of the cases on which he took pleasure in dilating. The result 
was that the petition was dismissed. 

I know nothing of politics for some time past. The 
Reform fever having subsided, people are principally occupied 
with speculations on the next elections. At present there 
is every appearance of the return of a House of Commons 
very favourable to the present Government, but the Tory 
party keeps together in the House of Lords, and they are 
auimated with vague hopes of being able to turn out the 
Ministry, more from a spirit of hatred and revenge than 
from any clear view of the practicability of their carrying 
on the Government. I conceive, however, that as soon as 
Parliament is up there will be a creation of Peers. In the 
House of Commons the Irish Tithe question has been the 
great subject of interest and discussion. O'Connell and the 
Irish members debate and adjourn just as they please, and 
Althorp is obliged to give way to them. When Stanley 
moved for leave to bring in his Bill, he detailed his plan in 
a speech of two hours. They thought fit to oppose this, 
which is quite unusual, and O'Connell did not arrive till 
after Stanley had sat down. Not having heard his speech 
he could not answer him, and he therefore moved the ad- 

1 The order was a decree of the Governor-General of India abolishing- 
the practice of suttee, against which certain Hindoos appealed to the 
King in Council. Another party, however, were in favour of the order, 
and the Rajah Rammohun Roy is acting in this country as their agent. 



1832] O'COXNELL'S DEE AD OF CHOLEEA. 309 

journment. Upon a former occasion, during the Reform 
Bill, when the Tories moved an adjournment after many 
hours' debate, the Government opposed it, and voted on 
through the night till seven o'clock in the morning ; now 
the Tories were ready to support Government against the 
Irish members, but they would not treat the Radicals as 
they did the Tories, and then on a subsequent occasion they 
submitted to have the debate adjourned. 

O'Connell is supposed to be horridly afraid of the cholera. 
He has dodged about between London and Dublin, as the 
disease appeared first at one and then the other place, and 
now that it is everywhere he shirks the House of Commons 
from fear of the heat and the atmosphere. The cholera is 
here, and diffuses a certain degree of alarm. Some servants 
of people well known have died, and that frightens all other 
servants out of their wits, and they frighten their masters ; 
the death of any one person they are acquainted with terrifies 
people much more than that of twenty of whom they knew 
nothing. As long as they read daily returns of a parcel of 
deaths here and there of A, B, and C they do not mind, 
but when they hear that Lady such a one's nurse or Sir 
somebody's footman is dead, they fancy they see the disease 
actually at their own door. 

July Ibth. — I had a good deal of conversation yesterday 
with Lord Duncannon and Lord John Russell about Ireland. 
The debate the night before lasted till four o'clock. O'Connell 
made a furious speech, and Dawson the other evening another, 
talking of resistance and of his readiness to join in it. This 
drew up Peel, who had spoken before, and who, when attacked 
with cries of ' Spoke ! ' said, s Yes, I have spoken, but I will 
say that no party considerations shall prevent my supporting 
Government in this measure, and giving them my cordial 
support.' He was furious with Dawson, and got up in 
order to throw him over, though he did not address himself 
to him, or to anything he had said expressly. John Russell 
spoke out what ought to have been said long ago, that the 
Church could not stand, but that the present clergyman 
must be paid. Both he and Duncannon are aware of the 



310 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

false position in which the Government is placed, pretending 
to legislate with a knowledge that their laws cannot be 
enforced, and the latter said that, whatever might be done, 
the Irish wonld take nothing at the hands of Stanley. It 
is unfortunate that his attachment to the Church makes 
him the unfittest man in the country to manage Irish affairs, 
and he has contrived to make himself so personally unpopular 
that with the best intentions he could not give satisfaction. 
Under these circumstances his remaining there is impossible, 
but what is to be done with him ? He is of such importance 
in the House of Commons that they cannot part with him. 
I asked John Russell why they did not send Hobhouse to 
Ireland and make Stanley Secretary of War. He said would 
he consent to exchange? that he was tired of office, and 
would be glad to be out. I said I could not suppose in such 
an emergency that he would allow any personal considerations 
to influence him, and that he would consent to whatever 
arrangement would be most beneficial to the Government 
and conducive to the settlement of Irish affairs. The truth 
is (as I told him) that they are, with respect to Ireland, in 
the situation of a man who has got an old house in which 
he can no longer live, not tenable ; various architects propose 
this and that alteration, to build a room here and pull down 
one there, but at last they find that all these alterations will 
only serve to make the house habitable a little while longer, 
that the dry rot is in it, and that they had better begin, as 
they will be obliged to end, by pulling it down and building- 
up a new one. He owned this was true, but said that here 
another difficulty presented itself with regard to Stanley — 
whether he would, as a leading member of the Cabinet, con- 
sent to any measures which might go so much further than 
he would be disposed to do. I said that I could not imagine 
(whatever might be his predilections) that his mind was not 
awakened to the necessity of giving way to the state of things, 
and that he might consent to measures which he felt he was 
not a fit person to introduce and recommend. He assented 
to this. He then talked of the views of the Protestants, of 
the Lefroys, &c, that they began to admit the necessity of 



1832] IRISH TITHES. 311 

a change, but by no means would consent to the alienation 
of Church property from Protestant uses, that they were 
willing where there was a large parish consisting entirely 
of Catholics that the tithes should be taken from the rector 
of such parish and given to one who had a large Protestant 
flock — an arrangement which would disgust the Catholics as 
much as or more than any other, and be considered a perfect 
mockery. The fact is we may shift and change and wriggle 
about as much as we will, we may examine and report and 
make laws, but tithe, the tithe system is at an end. The 
people will not pay them, and there are no means of com- 
pelling them. The march of events is just as certain as that 
of the seasons. The question which is said to be beset with 
difficulties is in fact very easy — that is, its difficulties arise 
from conflicting interests and passions, and not from the 
uncertainty of its operation and end. Those conflicting 
passions are certainly very great and very embarrassing, 
and it is no easy matter to deal with them, but it seems to 
me that the wisest policy is to keep our eyes steadfastly fixed 
on the end, and, admitting the inevitable conclusion, labour 
to bring it about with the smallest amount of individual loss, 
the greatest general benefit, and the best chance of perma- 
nence and stability. By casting lingering looks at the old 
system, and endeavouring to save something here and there, 
by allowing the Church to remain in the rags and tatters 
of its old supremacy, we shall foster those hostile feelings 
which it is essential to put down for ever, and leave the 
seeds of grievance and hatred to spring up in a future harvest 
of agitation and confusion. 

July 2oth. — Nothing of moment has occurred lately ; the 
dread of cholera absorbs everybody. Mrs. Smith, young and 
beautiful, was dressed to go to church on Sunday morning, 
when she was seized with the disorder, never had a chance of 
rallying, and died at eleven at night. This event, shocking 
enough in itself from its suddenness and the youth and beauty 
of the person, has created a terrible alarm ; many people have 
taken flight, and others are suspended between their hopes of 
safety in country air and their dread of being removed from 



312 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

metropolitan aid. The disease spreads gradually in all direc- 
tions in town and country, but without appearing like an 
epidemic; it is scattered and uncertain; it brings to light 
horrible distress. We, who live on the smooth and plausible 
surface, know little of the frightful appearance of the bowels 
of society. 

Don Pedro has never been heard of since he landed, and 
nobody seems much to care whether he or Miguel succeed. 
The Tories are for the latter and the Whigs for the former. 
In a fourth debate on the Eussian Dutch Loan Ministers 
got a good finale, a large division, and a brilliant speech 
from Stanley, totally unprepared and prodigiously successful. 
Nothing could be worse in point of tactics than renewing this 
contest, neither party having, in fact, a good case. Parlia- 
ment is going to separate soon, and the cholera will accelerate 
the prorogation ; not a step has been made towards an ap- 
proximation between the rival parties, who appear to be 
animated against each other with unabated virulence. The 
moderate Tories talk of their desire to see the Government 
discard their Eadical friends, but the great body give them no 
encouragement to do so by evincing any diminished hostility 
to them as a party. Opinions are so different as to the 
probable composition of the next Parliament, that it is 
difficult to arrive at any satisfactory conclusion about it. The 
Tories evidently expect that they shall reappear in very 
formidable strength, though in particular places the Tory 
party is entirely crushed ; the sooner it is so altogether the 
better, for no good can be expected from it, and it would be 
far better to erect a Conservative party upon a new and 
broader basis than to try and bolster up this worn-out, 
prejudiced, obstinate faction. But the times a,re difficult 
and men are wanting ; the middle classes are pressing on, 
and there are men enough there of fortune, energy, activity, 
zeal, and ambition — no Cannings perhaps or Broughams, but 
a host of fellows of the calibre of the actors in the old French 
Constituent Assembly. 

July 29th. — There has been a great breeze between the 
Chancellor and Sugden, abusing and retorting upon each 



1832] QUARREL BETWEEN BROUGHAM AND SUG-DEX. 313 

other from their respective Houses of Parliament. As all 
personal matters excite greater interest than any others, so 
has this. Scott, Lord Eldon's son, died, and his places be- 
came vacant. Brougham had recommended their abolition 
long ago in his evidence before the House of Commons, and 
both publicly and privately. Some days ago Sugden gave 
notice to Home (Solicitor-General) that he meant to put a 
question to him in the House of Commons as to whether 
these appointments were to be filled up or not, but before he 
did so (at four o'clock in the morning) the writ was moved 
for James Brougham, who had been put by the Chancellor in 
Scott's place. Accordingly the next day Sugden attacked 
the appointment in the House of Commons, and though he 
was by way of only asking a question, he in fact made a long 
vituperative speech. Nobody was there to reply. Althorp 
said he knew nothing of the matter, and various speeches 
were made, all expressive of a desire that the appointment 
should only be temporary. Home (it seems) had never told 
the Chancellor what Sugden said, and Denman, who had no 
authority from him, did not dare get up and say that it was 
not to be permanent. Later in the day, having received in- 
structions from the Chancellor, he did get up and say so. 
The next day Brougham introduced the subject in the 
House of Lords, and attacked Sugden with all the sarcasm 
and contumely which he could heap upon him, comparing 
him to * a crawling reptile,' &c. Not one of his Tory friends 
said a word, and, what is curious, the Duke of Wellington 
praised Brougham for his disinterestedness, and old Eldon 
defended the place. The following day (Friday) Sugden 
again brought the matter before the House of Commons, 
complained bitterly of the Chancellor's speech, was called to 
order by Stanley, when the Speaker interfered, and, dex- 
terously turning Sugden's attack upon the newspaper report, 
enabled him to go on. A violent discussion followed, rather 
awkward for the Chancellor, whose friends endeavoured to 
soften the thing down by denying the accuracy of the report. 
After much acrimonious debate the matter ended. Yesterday 
the ■ Times,' throwing over Brougham and Sugden, asserted 



314 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

the accuracy of its own reporter, and declared that whether 
the Chancellor was right or wrong to have uttered them, the 
words were spoken by him exactly as they had been reported. 
Both parties are furious, but on the whole the Chancellor 
seems at present to have the worst of it, for it is worse for a 
man in his station to be in the wrong, and more indecent to 
be scurrilous, than for an individual who is nothing. Sugden 
now declares he will bring on a motion he has long meditated 
on the subject of the Court of Chancery, in which he will 
exhibit to the world the whole conduct of Brougham since he 
has held the Great Seal, his early haste and precipitation, his 
recent carelessness and delay, his ignorance, inattention, and 
incompetence for the office he holds. In this he expects to 
be supported by Wetherell, Knight, and Pemberton, three of 
the most eminent Chancery lawyers, while Brougham has 
nobody but Home (of the profession) to defend him. If this 
should occur he may thank himself, for he would put Home 
there. 

Sir Charles Bagot called on me yesterday ; told me that 
he thought the Belgian question was at last on the point of 
being settled, that the King of Holland had made 6 the great 
concession,' and that the rest must soon follow, that he had 
never passed two such years amidst such difficulties, the King 
so obstinate. His view was that by holding out and main- 
taining a large army events would produce war, and that he 
would be able to sell himself to some one of the contending 
parties, getting back Belgium as the price of his aid, that 
he now only gave in because not a hope was left, that the 
difficulties were so great that it was not the fault of this 
Government that matters were not settled before. I asked 
him how the Dutch had contrived to make such an exertion. 
He said it was very creditable to them, but that they were 
very rich and very frugal, and had lugged out their hoards. 
They had saddled themselves with a debt the interest of which 
amounts to about 700,000L a year — a good deal for two 
millions of people. 

August 1st. — Here is an anecdote exhibiting the character 
of Brougham, hot, passionate, and precipitate. He is pre- 



1832] BROUGHAM'S KESENTMENT. 315 

paring his Bill for the amendment of the Court of Chancery, 
by which the patronage is to be done away with. Compen- 
sation was to be given to the present interests, but upon this 
recent affair between Sugden and him, to revenge himself 
upon men who are all or mostly of Sugden's party, he 
ordered the compensation clauses to be struck out. Sefton 
(who is a sort of Sancho to him) came up to dinner quite 
elated at having heard the order given. 6 I wish,' said he, 
* you had heard a man treated as I did in the Chancellor's 
room. He came in to ask him about the Bill he was drawing 
up. " I suppose the compensation clauses are to be put in?" 
" Compensation ? " said Brougham. " No, by God ; no com- 
pensation. Leave them out, if you please. They chose to 
attack me, and they shall have enough of it." ' And what will 
be the end of all this — that the Chancellor shows his spite 
and commits himself, shows that he is influenced in legislation 
by personal feelings, and incurs the suspicion that because 
he cannot get a compensation for his brother he is resolved 
nobody else shall have any ? Althorp's speech about the 
pensions on Monday set at rest the question of compensation, 
and if these offices are abolished the Chancellor cannot pre- 
vent their getting it. In the House of Lords the eternal 
Eussian Dutch Loan came on again. The Duke made a 
speech and Wynford made a speech, and they were opposed 
to each other ; the Duke hit the right nail on the head, and 
took that course which he frequently does, and which is such 
a redeeming quality in his political character — addressed 
himself to the question itself, to the real merits of it, without 
making it a mere vehicle for annoying the Government. 
Aberdeen sneered, but when the Duke throws over his people 
they can do nothing. 

August 8th. — Pedro's expedition, which always has 
hobbled along, and never exhibited any of that dash which 
is essential to the success of such efforts, may be considered 
hopeless ; Palmella arrived here a day or two ago, very low, 
and the Eegency scrip has fallen four per cent. Nobody 
joins them, and it seems pretty clear that, one coquin for 
another, the Portuguese think they may as well have Miguel. 



316 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

The Dutch, affair is not yet settled, but on the point of it ; 
for the fiftieth time a ' little hitch. ' has again arisen. Last 
night, in the House of Lords, the Chancellor, in one of his 
most bungling ways, made what he meant to be a sort of 
amende to Sugden, making the matter rather worse than it 
was before, at least for his own credit, for he said that ' he 
had never intended to give pain, which he of all things 
abhorred,' and that he had not been at all in a passion — both 
false, and the latter being in fact his only excuse. I sat next 
to Melbourne at dinner, who concurred in the judgment of 
the world on the whole transaction, and said, 'The real truth 
is, he was in a great rage, for he had forgotten all his own 
evidence and his own speeches, and he meant to have kept 
the place.' This evidence from his own colleague and friend 
is conclusive, and will be a nice morsel for the future bio- 
grapher of Brougham. 

I dined at Holland House yesterday ; a good many people, 
and the Chancellor came in after dinner, looking like an old 
clothes man and dirty as the ground. We had a true Holland 
House dinner, two more people arriving (Melbourne and Tom 
Duncombe) than there was room for, so that Lady Holland 
had the pleasure of a couple of general squeezes, and of 
seeing our arms prettily pinioned. Lord Holland sits at 
table, but does not dine. He proposed to retire (not from the 
room), but was not allowed, for that would have given us all 
space and ease. Lord Holland told some stories of Johnson 
and Garrick which he had heard from Kemble. Johnson 
loved to bully Garrick, from a recollection of Garrick's former 
impertinence. When Garrick was in the zenith of his popu- 
larity, and grown rich, and lived with the great, and while 
Johnson was yet obscure, the Doctor used to drink tea with 
him, and he would say, ' Davy, I do not envy you your 
money nor your fine acquaintance, but I envy you your 
power of drinking such tea as this.' 'Yes,' said Garrick, 'it 
is very good tea, but it is not my best, nor that which I give 
to my Lord this and Sir somebody t'other.' 

Johnson liked Fox because he defended his pension, and 
said it was only to blame in not being large enough. 



1832] CHARACTER OF MACAULAY. 317 

' Fox,' lie said, 'is a liberal man ; lie would alwavs be "aut 
Caesar aut nullus ; " whenever I have seen him he has been 
nullusJ Lord Holland said Fox made it a rule never to talk 
in Johnson's presence, because he knew all his conversations 
were recorded for publication, and he did not choose to figure 
in them. 

August 12th. — The House of Commons has finished (or 
nearly) its business. Althorp ended with a blunder. He 
brought in a Bill to extend the time for payment of rates 
and for voters under the new Bill, and because it was opposed 
he abandoned it suddenly ; his friends are disgusted. Eobarts 
told me that the Bank Committee had executed their laborious 
duties in a spirit of great cordiality, and with a general 
disposition to lay aside all political differences and concur in 
accomplishing the best results ; a good thing, for it is in such 
transactions as these, which afford an opportunity for laying- 
aside the bitterness of party and the rancorous feelings 
which animate men against each other, that the only chance 
can be found of a future amalgamation of public men. He 
told me that the evidence all went to prove that little 
improvement could be made in the management of the 
Bank. 

Dined yesterday at Holland House ; the Chancellor, Lord 
Grey, Luttrell, Palmerston, and Macaulay. The Chancellor 
was sleepy and would not talk ; he uttered nothing but 
yawns and grunts. Macaulay and Allen disputed history, 
particularly the character of the Emperor Frederick II., and 
Allen declared himself a Guelph and Macaulay a Ghibelline. 
Macaulay is a most extraordinary man, and his astonishing 
knowledge is every moment exhibited, but (as far as I have yet 
seen of him, which is not sufficient to judge) he is not agree- 
able. His propositions and his allusions are rather too abrupt ; 
he starts topics not altogether naturally ; then he has none 
of the graces of conversation, none of that exquisite tact and 
refinement which are the result of a felicitous intuition or a 
long acquaintance with good society, or more probably a 
mixture of both. The mighty mass of his knowledge is not 
animated by that subtle spirit of taste and discretion which 



318 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

alone can give it the qualities of lightness and elasticity, and 
without which, though he may have the power of instructing 
and astonishing, he never will attain that of delighting 
and captivating his hearers. The dinner was agreeable, and 
enlivened by a squabble between Lady Holland and Allen, 
at which we were all ready to die of laughing. He jeered 
at something she said as brutal, and chuckled at his own 
wit. 

Shepperton, August 31st. — I came here last Sunday to 
see my father, who (my mother wrote me word) had been 
unwell for a day or two. I got here at four o'clock (having 
called on Madame de Lieven at Richmond on the way), 
and when I arrived I found my father at the point of 
death. He was attacked as he had often been before ; medi- 
cines afforded him no relief, and nothing would stay on his 
stomach. On Saturday violent spasms came on, which 
occasioned him dreadful pain ; they continued intermittingly 
till Sunday afternoon, when as they took him out of bed to 
put him in a warm bath, he fainted. From this state of in- 
sensibility he never recovered, and at half-past twelve o'clock 
he expired. My brothers were both here. I sent an express 
for my sister, who was at Malvern, and she arrived on Tues- 
day morning. Dr. Dowdeswell was in the house, and he 
stayed on with us and did all that was required. This 
morning he was buried in the church of this village, close to 
the house, in the simplest manner, and was followed to the 
grave by my brothers and brother-in-law, Dowdeswell, Ives, 
the doctor who attended him, and the servants. He had long 
been ailing, and at his age (nearly 70 years) this event was 
not extraordinary, but it was shocking, because so sudden 
and unexpected, and no idea of danger was entertained by 
himself or those about him. My father had some faults and 
many foibles, but he was exposed to great disadvantages in 
early youth ; his education was neglected and his disposition 
was spoilt. His father was useless, and worse than useless, 
as a parent, and his mother (a woman of extraordinary 
capacity and merit) died while he was a young man, having 
been previously separated from her husband, and having 



1832] ANECDOTES OE PETNCESS CHAKLOTTE. 319 

retired from the world. 1 Tlie circumstances of his marriage, 
and the incidents of his life, would be interesting to none 
but his own family, and need not be recorded by me. He 
was a man of a kind, amiable, and liberal disposition, and 
what is remarkable, as he advanced in years his temper 
grew less irritable and more indulgent ; he was cheerful, 
hospitable, and unselfish. He had at all times been a lively 
companion, and without much instruction, extensive informa- 
tion, or a vigorous understanding, his knowledge of the 
world in the midst of which he had passed his life, his taste 
and turn for humour, and his good-nature made him a very 
agreeable man. He had a few intimate friends to whom he 
was warmly attached, a host of acquaintance, and I do not 
know that he had a single enemy. He was an affectionate 
father, and ready to make any sacrifices for the happiness 
and welfare of his children — in short, he was amiable and 
blameless in the various relations of life, and he deserved 
that his memory should be cherished as it is by us with sincere 
and affectionate regret. 

September 18th. — I have been in London, at Shepperton, 
and twice at Brighton to see Henry de Eos ; came back yester- 
day. The world is half asleep. Lord Howe returns to the Queen 
as her Chamberlain, and that makes a sensation. I met at 
Brighton Lady Keith [Madame de Flahaut] , who told us a 
great deal about French politics, which, as she is a partisan, 
was not worth much, but she also gave us rather an amusing 
account of the early days of the Princess Charlotte, at the time 
of her escape from Warwick House in a hackney coach and 
taking refuge with her mother, and of the earlier affair of 
Captain Hess. The former escapade arose from her deter- 
mination to break off her marriage with the Prince of Orange, 
and that from her falling suddenly in love with Prince 
Augustus of Prussia, and her resolving to marry him and 

1 [Mr. Charles Greville, senior, was the fifth son of Fulk Greville of 
"Wilbury, by Frances Macartney, a lady of some literary reputation as the 
authoress of an i Ode to Indifference.' She was the daughter of General 
Macartney. Horace Walpole speaks of her as one of the beauties of his 
time. She died in 1780. Mr. Greville may have inherited from her his 
strong literary tastes.] 



320 KEIGX OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

nobody else, not knowing that he was already married de la 
main gauche in Prussia. It seems that she speedily made 
known her sentiments to the Prince, and he (notwithstanding 
his marriage) followed the thing up, and had two interviews 
with her at her own house, which were contrived by Miss 
Knight, her governess. During one of these Miss Mercer 
arrived, and Miss Knight told her that Prince Augustus was 
with the Princess in her room, and what a fright she (Miss 
Knight) was in. Miss Mercer, who evidently had no mind 
anybody should conduct such an affair for the Princess but 
herself, pressed Miss Knight to go a-nd interrupt them, which 
on her declining she did herself. The King (Regent as he 
was then) somehow heard of these meetings, and measures 
of coercion were threatened, and it was just when an ap- 
proaching visit from him had been announced to the Princess 
that she went off. Miss Mercer was in the house at the time, 
and the Regent, when he came, found her there. He accused 
her of being a party to the Princess's flight, but afterwards 
either did or pretended to believe her denial, and sent her 
to fetch the Princess back, which after many fouvparlers 
and the intervention of the Dukes of York and Sussex, 
Brougham, and the Bishop of Salisbury, her preceptor, was 
accomplished at two in the morning. 

Hess' s affair was an atrocity of the Princess of Wales. 
She employed him to convey letters to her daughter while 
she used to ride in Windsor Park, which he contrived to 
deliver, and occasionally to converse with her ; and on one 
occasion, at Kensington, the Princess of Wales brought them 
together in her own room. The Princess afterwards wrote 
him some letters, not containing much harm, but idle and 
improper. When the Duke of York's affair with Mrs. Clark 
came out, and all the correspondence, she became very much 
alarmed, told Miss Mercer the whole story, and employed her 
to get back her letters to Hess. She accordingly wrote to 
Hess (who was then in Spain), but he evinced a disinclina- 
tion to give them up. On his return to England she saw 
him, and on his still demurring she threatened to put the 
affair into the Duke of York's hands, which frightened him, 
and then he surrendered them, and signed a paper declaring 






I 



1832] BELGIUM, SPAIN, FRANCE. 321 

lie had given up everything. The King afterwards heard of 
this affair, and questioning the Princess, she told him ever y- 
thinsf. He sent for Miss Mercer, and desired to see the 
letters, and then to keep them. This she refused. This 
Captain Hess was a short, plump, vulgar-looking man, 
afterwards lover to the Queen of Naples, mother of the 
present King, an amour that was carried on under the 
auspices of the Margravine at her villa in the Strada Nova 
at Naples. It was, however, detected, and Hess was sent 
away from Naples, and never allowed to return. I remember 
finding him at Turin (married), when he was lamenting his 
hard fate in being excluded from that Paradiso Naples. 

September 28th.— At Stoke from the 22nd to the 26th, 
then to the Grove, and returned yesterday; at the former 
place Madame de Lieven, Alvanley, Melbourne ; tolerably 
pleasant ; question of war again. The Dutch King makes 
a stir, and threatens to bombard the town of Antwerp ; the 
French offered to march, and put their troops in motion, but 
Leopold begged they would not, and chose rather to await 
the effect of more conferences, which began with great vigour 
a few days ago. What they find to say to each other for eight 
or ten hours a day for several consecutive days it is hard to 
guess, as the question is of the simplest kind. The King 
of Holland will not give up the citadel of Antwerp, nor 
consent to the free navigation of the Scheldt ; the Belgians 
insist on these concessions ; the Conference says they shall 
be granted, but Russia. Prussia, and Austria will not coerce 
the Dutchman ; England and France will, if the others don't 
object. A French army is in motion, and a French fleet is off 
Spithead ; so probably something will come of it. Nothing- 
has damaged this Government more than these protracted 
and abortive conferences. 

Four days ago there was a report that the King of Spain 
was dead, accompanied with a good many particulars, and 
all the world began speculating as to the succession, but 
yesterday came news that he was not dead, but better. Pedro 
and Miguel are fighting at Oporto with some appearance of 
spirit; Miguel is the favourite. The French Government is 

VOL. II. y 



322 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XVIII. 

represented to be in a wretched state, squabbling and feeble, 
and nobody is inclined to be Minister. Dupin was very near 
it, but refused because Louis Philippe would not make him 
President of the Council. The King is determined to be his 
own Minister, and can get nobody to take office on these 
terms. They think it will end in Dupin. The present 
Government declares it cannot meet the Chambers until 
Antwerp is evacuated by the Dutch and the Duchesse de 
Berri departed out of France or taken. This heroine, much 
to the annoyance of her family, is dodging about in La Vendee 
and doing rather harm than good to her cause. The Dau- 
phiness passed through London, when our Queen very politely 
went to visit her. She has not a shadow of doubt of the 
restoration of her nephew, and thinks nothing questionable 
but the time. She told Madame de Lieven this. I talked to 
Madame de Lieven about war, and added that if any did 
break out it would be the war of opinion which Canning had 
predicted. She said yes, and that the monarchical principle 
(as she calls the absolute principle) would then crush the 
other. 

I came up with Melbourne to London. He is uneasy 
about the state of the country — about the desire for change 
and the general restlessness that prevails. We discussed the 
different members of the Government, and he agreed that 
John Eussell had acted unwarrantably in making the speech 
he did the other day at Torquay about the Ballot, which, 
though hypothetical, was nothing but an invitation to 
the advocates of Ballot to agitate for it ; this, too, from a 
Cabinet Minister ! Then comes an awkward sort of explana- 
tion, that what he said was in his individual capacity, as if 
he had any right so to speak. Melbourne spoke of Brougham, 
who he said was tossed about in perpetual Caprices, that he 
was fanciful and sensitive, and actuated by all sorts of little- 
nesses, even with regard to people so insignificant that it is 
•difficult to conceive how he can ever think about them ; that 
lie is conservative, but under the influence of his old con- 
nexions, particularly of the Saints. His friends are so often 
changed that it is not easy to follow him in this respect. 



1832] CONVERSATION WITH LORD MELBOURNE. 323 

Durham used to be one ; now he hates him ; he has a high 
opinion of Seffcon ! of his judgment ! ! What is talent, what 
are great abilities, when one sees the gigantic intellect of 
Brouo-ham so at fault ? Not only does the world manage to go 
on when little wisdom guides it, but how ill it may go on with a 
great deal of talent, which, however, is different from ivisdom. 
He asked me what I thought of Eichmond, and I told him that 
he was ignorant and narrow-minded, but a good sort of 
fellow, only appearing to me, who had known him all my life, 
in an odd place as a Cabinet Minister. He said he was sharp, 
quick, the King liked him, and he stood up to Durham more 
than any other man in the Cabinet, and that altogether he was 
not unimportant ; so that the ingredients of this Cabinet seem 
to be put there to neutralise one another, and to be good for 
nothing else ; because Durham has an overbearing temper, 
and his father-in-law is weak, there must be a man without 
any other merit than spirit to curb that temper. He talked of 
Ireland, and the difficulty of settling the question there, that 
the Archbishop of Canterbury was willing to reform the 
Church, but not to alienate any of its revenues. ' Not,' I 
asked, ' for the payment of a Catholic clergy ? 5 ' No, not 
from Protestant uses.' I told him there was nothing to be 
done but to pull down the edifice and rebuild it. He said you 
would have all the Protestants against you, but he did not 
appear to differ. To this things must come at last. Mel- 
bourne is exceedingly anxious to keep Lord Hill and Fitzroy 
Somerset at the head of the army, from which the violent of 
his party would gladly oust them, but he evidently contem- 
plates the possibility of having occasion for the army, and does 
not wish to tamper with the service or play any tricks with 
it. It is curious to see the working and counterworking of 
his real opinions and principles with his false position, and 
the mixture of bluntness, facility and shrewdness, discretion, 
levity and seriousness, which, colouring his mind and cha- 
racter by turns, make up the strange compound of his 
thoughts and his actions. 



Y 2 



324 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 



CHAPTEE XIX. 

Foreign Difficulties — Conduct of Peel on the Resignation of Lord Grey — 
Manners Sutton proposed as Tory Premier — Coolness between Peel and 
the Duke — Embargo on Dutch Ships — Death of Lord Tenterden — 
Denman made Lord Chief Justice — Tableau of Holland House — The 
Speakership — Home and Campbell Attorney- and Solicitor-General — The 
Court at Brighton— Lord Howe and the Queen — Elections under the 
Reform Act — Mr. Gully — Pet worth — Lord Egremont — Attempt to re* 
instate Lord Howe — Namik Pacha — Lord Lyndhurst's Version of what 
occurred on the Resignation of Lord Grey — Lord Denbigh appointed 
Chamberlain to the Queen — Brougham's Privy Council Bill — Talley- 
rand's Relations with Fox and Pitt— Negro Emancipation Bill — State of 
the West Indies — The Reformed Parliament meets — Russian Intrigues — 
Four Days' Debate on the Address— Peel's Political Career. 

London, October 1th. — I went to Newmarket on the 30th 
of September, to Panshanger on the 5th, and came to town 
on the 6th. Great fears entertained of war ; the obstinacy 
of the Dutch King, the appointment of Soult to be Prime 
Minister of Prance, and the ambiguous conduct of the Allied 
Courts look like war. Miguel has attacked Oporto without 
success ; but, as he nearly destroyed the English and French 
battalions, he will probably soon get possession of the city. 
It is clear that all Portugal is for him, which we may be sorry 
for, but so it is. The iniquity of his cause does not appear 
to affect it. 

October 12th. — Lady Cowper told me at Panshanger that 
Palmerston said all the difficulties of the Belgian question 
came from Matuscewitz, who was insolent and obstinate, and 
astute in making objections ; that it was the more provoking 
as he had been recalled some time ago (the Greek business 
being settled, for which he came), and Palmerston and some 
of the others had asked the Emperor to allow him to stay here, 



1832] TOKY ATTEMPTS TO FOEM A MINISTRY. 325 

on account of his usefulness in drawing up the minutes of the 
proceedings of the Conference ; that Lieven had by no means 
wished him to stay, but could not object when the others 
desired it. Accordingly he remained, and now he annoys 
Palmerston to death. All this she wrote to Madame de 
Lieven, who replied that it was not the fault of Matusce- 
witz, and that he and Lieven agreed perfectly. She talked, 
however, rather more pacific language. This clever, in- 
triguing, agreeable diplomatess has renewed her friendship 
with the Duke of Wellington, to which he does not object, 
though she will hardly ever efface the impression her former 
conduct made upon him. My journal is getting intolerably 
stupid, and entirely barren of events. I would take to mis- 
cellaneous and private matters if any fell in my way, but 
what can I make out of such animals as I herd with and 
such occupations as I am engaged in ? 

Euston, October 26th. — Went to Downham on Sunday 
last; the Duke of Rutland, the Walewskis, Lord Burg- 
hersh, and Hope. Came here on Wednesday morning ; the 
usual party. At Downham I picked up a good deal from 
Arbuthnot (who was very garrulous) of a miscellaneous de- 
scription, of which the most curious and important was the 
entire confirmation of (what I before suspected) the ill blood 
that exists between the Duke of Wellington and Peel; 
though the interests of party keep them on decent terms, 
they dislike one another, and the Duke's friends detest Peel 
still more than the Duke does himself. He told me all that 
had passed at the time of the blow-up of the present Govern- 
ment, which I have partly recorded from a former conversa- 
tion with him, and his story certainly proves that the 
Duke (though I think he committed an enormous error in judg- 
ment) was not influenced by any motives of personal ambition. 
As soon as the King sent for Lyndhurst the latter went 
to the Duke, who (as is known) agreed to form a Govern- 
ment, never doubting that he was to be himself Prime 
Minister. Lyndhurst went to Peel, who declined to take 
office, and he then went to Baring. Lyndhurst and Arbuth- 
not sent for Baring out of the House of Commons, and took 



326 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

him to old Bankes' house in Palace Yard, where they had 
their conversation with him. He begged for time to consider 
of it, and to be allowed to consult Peel, to which they as- 
sented. He afterwards agreed, but on condition that Man- 
ners Sutton should also be in the Cabinet. Lyndhurst had 
about the same time made overtures to Manners Sutton, 
and though nothing was finally settled it was understood he 
would accept them. So matters stood, when one day (it 
must have been the Wednesday or Thursday) Yesey Fitz- 
gerald called on the Arbuthnots, and in a conversation 
about the differeut arrangements he intimated that Manners 
Sutton expected to be Prime Minister, and on asking him 
more particularly they found that this was also his own 
impression. The next morning Arbuthnot went off to Lynd- 
hurst's house, where he arrived before Lyndhurst was 
dressed, and told him what had fallen from Fitzgerald, and 
asked what it could mean. Lyndhurst answered very 
evasively, but promised to have the matter cleared up. 
Arbuthnot, not satisfied, went to the Duke and told him 
what had passed, and added his conviction that there was 
some such project on foot (to make Sutton Premier) of which 
he was not aware. The Duke said he did not care a farthing 
who was Premier, and that if it was thought desirable that 
Sutton should be he had not the smallest objection, and was 
by no means anxious to fill the post himself. I asked 
whether the Duke would have taken office if Sutton had 
been Minister, and was told that nothing was settled, but 
probably not. 

The same day there was a meeting at Apsley House, at 
which the Duke, Lyndhurst, Baring, Ellenborough, and (I 
think) Eosslyn or Aberdeen, or both, were present, and to 
which Sutton came, and held forth for nearly four hours 
upon the position of their affairs and his coming* into office. 
He talked such incredible nonsense (as I have before 
related) that when he was gone they all lifted up their 
hands and with one voice* pronounced the impossibility of 
forming any Government under such a head. Baring was 
then asked why he had made Sutton's coming into office 



1832] MANNERS SUTTON PROPOSED AS PREMIER. 327 

the condition of his own acceptance, and why he had 
wished him to be Prime Minister. He said that he had 
never desired any such thing himself, and had hardly any 
acquaintance with Sutton, except that as speaker he was 
civil to him, and he dined with him once a year, but that 
when he had gone to consult Peel, Peel had advised him 
to insist upon having Sutton, and to put him at the head of 
the Government. This avowal led to further examination 
into what had passed, and it came out that when Lyndhurst 
went to Peel, Peel pressed Manners Sutton upon him, 
refusing to take office himself, but promising to support the 
new Government, and urging Lyndhurst to offer the Pre- 
miership to Sutton. At the same time he put Sutton up to 
this, and desired him to refuse every office except that of 
Premier. Accordingly, when Lyndhurst went to Sutton, the 
latter said he would be Prime Minister or nothing, and 
Lyndhurst had the folly to promise it to him. Thus matters 
stood when Lady Cowley, who was living at Apsley House, 
and got hold of what was passing, went and told it to her 
brother, Lord Salisbury, who lost no time in imparting it to 
some of the other High Tory Lords, who all agreed that it 
would not do to have Sutton at the head of the Government, 
and that the Duke was the only man for them. On Satur- 
day the great dinner at the Conservative Club took place, at 
which a number of Tories, principally Peers, with the Duke 
and Peel, were present. A great ,many speeches were made, 
all full of enthusiasm for the Duke, and expressing a deter- 
mination to support his Government. Peel was in very ill 
humour and said little ; the Duke spoke much in honour of 
Peel, applauding his conduct and saying that the difference 
of their positions justified each in his different line. The 
next day some of the Duke's friends met, and agreed that 
the unanimous desire for the Duke's being at the head of 
the Government which had been expressed at that dinner, 
together with the unfitness of Sutton, proved the absolute 
necessity of the Duke's being Premier, and it was resolved 
that a communication to this effect should be made to Peel. 
Aberdeen charged himself with it and went to Peel's house, 



328 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

where Sutton was at the time. Peel came to Aberdeen in 
a very bad humour, said he saw from what had passed at 
the dinner that nobody was thought of but the Duke, and 
lie should wash, his hands of the whole business ; that he had 
already declined having anything to do with the Govern- 
ment, and to that determination he should adhere. The 
following Monday the whole thing was at an end. 

I am not sure that I have stated these occurrences 
exactly as they were told me. There may be errors in the 
order of the interviews and pourparlers, and in the verbal 
details, but the substance is correct, and may be summed up 
to this effect : that Peel, full of ambition, but of caution, 
animated by deep dislike and jealousy of the Duke (which 
policy induced him to conceal, but which temper betrayed), 
thought to make Manners Sutton play the part of Adding- 
ton, while he was to be another Pitt ; he fancied that he 
could gain in political character, by an opposite line of con- 
duct, all that the Duke would lose ; and he resolved that a 
Government should be formed the existence of which should 
depend upon himself. Manners Sutton was to be his 
creature ; he would have dictated every measure of Govern- 
ment ; he would have been their protector in the House of 
Commons ; and, as soon as the fitting moment arrived, he 
would have dissolved this miserable Ministry and placed 
himself at the head of affairs. All these deep-laid schemes, 
and constant regard of self, form a strong contrast to the 
simplicity and heartiness of the Duke's conduct, and make 
the two men appear in a very different light from that in 
which they did at first. Peel acted right from bad motives, 
the Duke wrong from good ones. The Duke put himself 
forward, and encountered all the obloquy and reproach to 
which he knew he exposed himself, and having done so, 
cheerfully offered to resign the power to another. Peel en- 
deavoured to seize the power, but to shield himself from 
responsibility and danger. It is a melancholy proof of the 
dearth of talent and the great capacity of the man that, 
notwithstanding the detection of his practices and his 
motives, the Tories are compelled still to keep well with 



1832] EMBARGO ON DUTCH SHIPS. 329 

him and to accept him for their leader. No cordiality, 
however, can exist again between him and the Duke and 
his friends, and, should the Whig Government be expelled, 
the animosity and disunion engendered by these circum- 
stances will make it extremely difficult to form a Tory 
Administration. [In a short time it was all made up — for- 
given, if not forgotten.] 

November 7th. — Came to town on Sunday. The answer 
of the Dutch King to the demand of England and France 
that he should give up Antwerp was anxiously expected. 
It arrived on Monday afternoon, and was a refusal. Ac- 
cordingly a Council met yesterday, at which an order was 
made for laying an embargo on Dutch merchant ships, which 
are to be sequestrated, but not confiscated. The French 
army marches forthwith, and Palmerston told me they ex- 
pected two or three days of bombardment would suffice for 
the capture of the citadel, after whicli the French would 
retire within their own frontier. The combined fleets will 
remain at the Downs, for they can do nothing on the coast 
of Holland at this season of the year. There is a good deal 
of jealousy and no friendly spirit between the English and 
French, sailors ; and the Duke of Richmond told me yesterday 
that the Deal pilots desired nothing so much as to get the 
French ships into a scrape. Great excitement prevails about 
this Dutch question, which is so complicated that at this 
moment I do not understand its merits. Matuscewitz, how- 
ever, who is opposed totis viribus to the policy of England 
and France, told me that nobody could have behaved worse 
than the King of Holland has done, shuffling and tricking 
throughout ; but they say he is so situated at home that he 
could not give way if he would. A few days must now de- 
cide the question of war or peace. All the Ministers, except 
Brougham, Lord Holland, Grant, and Carlisle, were at the 
Council yesterday — the Archbishop of Canterbury for a prayer 
(for we omit no opportunity of offering supplications or re- 
turning thanks to Heaven), and the new Lord Chief Justice 
to be sworn a Privy Councillor. 

Lord Tenterden died on Sunday night, and no time was 



330 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

lost in appointing Denman as his successor. Coming as he 
does after four of the greatest lawyers who ever sat upon the 
Bench, this choice will not escape severe censure ; for the 
reputation of Denman as a lawyer is not high, and he has 
been one of the most inefficient Attorneys- General who ever 
filled the office. It has been a constant matter of complaint 
on the part of the Government and their friends that the 
law officers of the Crown gave them no assistance, but, on 
the contrary, got them into scrapes. Denman is an honour- 
able man, and has been a consistent politician ; latterly, of 
course, a Radical of considerable vehemence, if not of violence. 
The other men who were mentioned as successors to 
Tenterden were Lyndhurst, Scarlett, and James Parke. The 
latter is the best of the puisne judges, and might have been 
selected if all political considerations and political connexions 
had been disregarded. Lyndhurst will be overwhelmed with 
anguish and disappointment at finding himself for ever ex- 
cluded from the great object of his ambition, and in which 
his professional claims are so immeasurably superior to those 
of his successful competitor ; nor has he lost it by any sacri- 
fice of interest to honour, but merely from the unfortunate 
issue of his political speculations. When he was made Chief 
Baron a regular compact was made, a secret article, that he 
should succeed on Tenterden's death to the Chief Justice- 
ship ; which bargain was of course cancelled by his declara- 
tion of war on the Eeform question and his consequent 
breach with Lord Grey ; though by far the fittest man, he 
was now out of the question. It will be the more grating 
as he has just evinced his high capabilities by pronouncing 
in the Court of Exchequer one of the ablest judgments (in 
Small v. Attwood) that were ever delivered. [It was after- 
wards reversed by the House of Lords.] Scarlett, who had 
been a Whig for forty years, and who has long occupied the 
first place in the Court of King's Bench, would have been 
the man if his political dissociation from his old connexions, 
and his recent hostility to them, had not also cancelled his 
claims ; so that every rival being set aside from one cause 
or another, Denman, by one of the most extraordinary pieces 



1832] DEISTMAN LOED CHIEF JUSTICE. 331 

of good fortune that ever happened to man, finds himself 
elevated to this great office, the highest object of a lawyer's 
ambition, and, in my opinion, one of the most enviable 
stations an Englishman can attain. It is said that as a Com- 
mon Serjeant he displayed the qualities of a good judge, 
and his friends confidently assert that he will make a very 
good Chief Justice ; but his legal qualifications are admitted 
to be very inferior to those of his predecessors. [He made 
a very bad one, but was personally popular and generally 
respected for his high and honourable moral character.] 

Tenterden was a remarkable man, and his elevation did 
great credit to the judgment which selected him, and which 
probably was Eldon's. He had never led a cause, but he 
was a profound lawyer, and appears to have had a mind 
fraught with the spirit and genius of the law, and not nar- 
rowed and trammelled by its subtleties and technicalities. 
In spite of his low birth, want of oratorical power, and of 
personal dignity, he was greatly revered and dreaded on the 
Bench. He was an austere, but not an ill-humoured judge ; 
his manners were remarkably plain and unpolished, though 
not vulgar. He was an elegant scholar, and cultivated clas- 
sical literature to the last. Brougham, whose congenial 
tastes delighted in his classical attainments, used to bandy 
Latin and Greek with him from the Bar to the Bench ; and 
he has more than once told me of his sending Tenterden 
Greek verses of John Williams', of which the next day 
Tenterden gave him a translation in Latin verse. He is 
supposed to have died very rich. Denman was taken into 
the King's closet before the Council, when he was sworn in ; 
the King took no particular notice of him, and the appoint- 
ment is not, probably, very palatable to his Majesty. 

November 1 6th. — Sheriff business at the Exchequer Court 
on Monday; saw Lyndhurst and Denman meet and shake 
hands with much politeness and grimace. 

November 20th. — Dined at Holland House the day before 
yesterday ; Lady Holland is unwell, fancies she must dine at 
five o'clock, and exerts her power over society by making every- 
body go out there at that hour, though nothing can be more 



332 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

inconvenient than thus shortening the day, and nothing more 
tiresome than such lengthening of the evening. Eogers and 
Luttrell were staying there. The tableau of the house is 
this: — Before dinner, Lady Holland affecting illness and 
almost dissolution, but with a very respectable appetite, and 
after dinner in high force and vigour ; Lord Holland, with 
his chalkstones and unable to walk, lying on his couch in 
very good spirits and talking away; Luttrell and Rogers 
walking about, ever and anon looking despairingly at the 
clock and making short excursions from the drawing-room ; 
Allen surly and disputatious, poring over the newspapers, 
and replying in monosyllables (generally negative) to what- 
ever is said to him. The grand topic of interest, far exceed- 
ing the Belgian or Portuguese questions, was the illness of 
Lady Holland's page, who has got a tumour in his thigh. 
This c little creature,' as Lady Holland calls a great hulking 
fellow of about twenty, is called ' Edgar,' his real name being 
Tom or Jack, which he changed on being elevated to his 
present dignity, as the Popes do when they are elected to 
the tiara. More rout is made about him than other people 
are permitted to make about their children, and the inmates 
of Holland House are invited and compelled to go and sit 
with and amuse him. Such is the social despotism of this 
strange house, which presents an odd mixture of luxury and 
constraint, of enjoyment physical and intellectual, with an 
alloy of small desagrements. Talleyrand generally comes at 
ten or eleven o'clock, and stays as long as they will let him. 
Though everybody who goes there finds something to abuse 
or to ridicule in the mistress of the house, or its ways, all 
continue to go ; all like it more or less ; and whenever, by 
the death of either, it shall come to an end, a vacuum will 
be made in society which nothing will supply. It is the 
house of all Europe ; the world will suffer by the loss ; and 
it may with truth be said that it will ' eclipse the gaiety of 
nations.' 

November 27th. — At Eoehampton from Saturday till 
Monday. The Chancellor had been there a few days before, 
from whomLord Dover had picked up the gossip of the Govern- 



1832 J THE SPEAEEKSHIP. 333 

ment. There had been a fresh breeze with Durham, who it 
seems has returned from Russia more odious than ever. His 
violence and insolence, as usual, were vented on Lord Grey, 
and the rest of the Cabinet, as heretofore, are obliged to 
submit. I have since heard from the Duke of Eichmond that 
the cause of this last storm was something relating to Church 
Reform, and that he had been forced to knock under. I fancy 
he wanted to go much further than the others, probably to 
unfrock the Bishop of Durham and Bishop Phillpotts, the 
former because he is a greater man in the county than him- 
self, and the latter from old and inextinguishable hatred and 
animosity. 

There has been another dispute about the Speakership. 
All the Cabinet except Althorp want to put Abercromby in 
the chair, and Althorp insists on having Littleton. The 
former is in all respects the best choice, aud the man whom 
they ought, from his long connexion with the Whigs and 
his consistency and respectability, to propose, but Althorp 
thought fit to commit himself in some way to Littleton, who 
has no claims to be compared with those of Abercromby 
(having been half his life in opposition to the present Govern- 
ment), and he obstinately insists upon the expectations held 
out to him being realised. Lord Grey, though very anxious 
for Abercromby, thinks it necessary to defer to the leader of 
the House of Commons, and the consequence is a very dis- 
agreeable dispute on the subject. Abercromby is greatly 
mortified at being postponed to Littleton, and not the less 
as Althorp has always been his friend. The language of 
Dover, who is a sort of jackal to Brougham, clearly indicates 
the desire of that worthy to get rid of Lord Grey and put 
himself in his place. All these little squabbles elicit some 
disparaging remarks on Lord Grey's weakness, folly, or 
cupidity. Hceret lateri — the offer of the Attorney-Generalship, 
and the day of vengeance is intended to come. 1 

After considerable delay Home and Campbell were 
appointed Attorney- and Solicitor-General ; the delay was 

1 [This refers to Lord Grey's having offered the Attomey-General-hip 
to Brougham when Government was formed.] 



334 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

occasioned by ineffectual attempts to dispose of Home else- 
where. They wanted to get some puisne judge to resign, 
and to put Home on the Bench, but they could not make 
any such arrangement, so Home is Attorney. Pepys was to 
have been Solicitor if the thing could have been managed. 
I don't think I picked up anything else, except that the King 
was very averse to the French attack upon Antwerp, and 
consented to the hand-in-hand arrangement between France 
and England with considerable reluctance. The fact is 
he hates this Government so much that he dislikes 'all 
they do. 

Lord Lansdowne is just come from Paris, and gives a 
nourishing account of the prospects of King Louis Philippe 
and his Government, but as he is the Due de Broglie's intimate 
friend his opinion may be prejudiced. The King appears 
certainly to have rather gained than not by the attack which 
was made on him, from the coolness and courage he evinced, 
and it is a great point to have proved that he is not a coward. 

Brighton, December Uth. — Came here last Wednesday 
week ; Council on the Monday for the dissolution ; place very 
full, bustling, gay, and amusing. I am staying in De Eos's 
house with Alvanley; Chesterfields, Howes, Lievens, Cow- 
pers, all at Brighton, and plenty of occupation in visiting, 
gossiping, dawdling, riding, and driving ; a very idle life, and 
impossible to do anything. The Court very active, vulgar, 
and hospitable ; King, Queen, Princes, Princesses, bastards, 
and attendants constantly trotting about in every direction : 
the. election noisy and dull — the Court candidate beaten and 
two Eadicals elected. Everybody talking of the siege of 
Antwerp and the elections. So, with plenty of animation, and 
discussion, and curiosity, I like it very well. Lord Howe 
is devoted to the Queen, and never away from her. She 
receives his attentions, but demonstrates nothing in return ; 
he is like a boy in love with this frightful spotted Majesty, 
while his delightful wife is laid up (with a sprained ancle 
and dislocated joint) on her couch. 

Brighton, December 17th. — On Sunday I heard Anderson 
preach. He does not write his sermons, but preaches from 



1832] MR. GULLY. 335 

notes ; very eloquent, voice and manner perfect, one of the 
best I ever heard, both preacher and reader. 

The borough elections are nearly over, and have satisfied 
the Government. They do not seem to be bad on the whole ; 
the metropolitans have sent good men enough, and there was 
no tumult in the town. At Hertford Duncombe was routed 
by Salisbury's long purse. He hired such a numerous mob 
besides that he carried all before him. Some very bad cha- 
racters have been returned ; among the worst, Faithful here ; 
Gronow at Stafford ; Gully, Pontefract ; Cobbett, Oldham ; 
though I am glad that Cobbett is in Parliament. Gully's 
history is extraordinary. He was taken out of prison 
twenty-five or thirty years ago by Mellish to fight Pierce, 
surnamed the ' Game Chicken,' being then abutcher's appren- 
tice ; he fought him and was beaten. He afterwards fought 
Belcher (I believe), and Gresson twice, and left the prize- 
ring with the reputation of being the best man in it. He 
then took to the turf^ was successful, established himself at 
Newmarket, where he kept a hell, and began a system of 
corruption of trainers, jockeys, and boys, which put the 
secrets of all Newmarket at his disposal, and in a few years 
made him rich. At the same time he connected himself 
with Mr. Watt in the north, by betting for him, and this 
being at the time when Watt's stable was very successful, 
he won large sums of money by his horses. Having become 
rich he embarked in a great coal speculation, which answered 
beyond his hopes, and his shares soon yielded immense 
profits. His wife, who was a coarse, vulgar woman, in the 
meantime died, and he afterwards married the daughter of 
an innkeeper, who proved as gentlewomanlike as the other 
had been the reverse, and who is very pretty besides. He 
now gradually withdrew from the betting ring as a regular 
blackleg, still keeping horses, and betting occasionally in 
large sums, and about a year or two ago, having previously 
sold the Hare Park to Sir Mark Wood, where he lived for 
two or three years, he bought a property near Pontefract, 
and settled down (at Ackworth Park) as John Gully, Esq., a 
gentleman of fortune. At the Reform dissolution he was 



336 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

pressed to come forward as candidate for Pontefract, but 
after some hesitation he declined. Latterly he has taken great 
interest in politics, and has been an ardent Reformer and a 
liberal subscriber for the advancement of the cause. When 
Parliament was about to be dissolved, he was again invited 
to stand for Pontefract by a numerous deputation ; he again 
hesitated, but finally accepted ; Lord Mexborough withdrew, 
and he was elected without opposition. In person he is tall 
and finely formed, full of strength and grace, with delicate 
hands and feet, his face coarse and with a bad expression, 
his head set well on his shoulders, and remarkably graceful 
and even dignified in his actions and manners ; totally with- 
out education, he has strong sense, discretion, reserve, and a 
species of good taste which has prevented, in the height of 
his fortunes, his behaviour from ever transgressing the 
bounds of modesty and respect, and he has gradually sepa- 
rated himself from the rabble of bettors and blackguards of 
whom he was once the most conspicuous, and tacitly asserted 
his own independence and acquired gentility without ever 
presuming towards those whom he has been accustomed to 
regard with deference. His position is now more anomalous 
than ever, for a member of Parliament is a great man, 
though there appear no reasons why the suffrages of the 
blackguards of Pontefract should place him in different 
social relations towards us than those in which we mutually 
stood before. 

Petworth, December 20th. — Came here yesterday. It is a 
very grand place ; house magnificent and full of fine objects, 
both ancient and modern ; the Sir Joshuas and Vandykes 
particularly interesting, and a great deal of all sorts that is 
worth seeing. Lord Egremont was eighty-one the day before 
yesterday, and is still healthy, with faculties and memory 
apparently unimpaired. He has reigned here for sixty years 
with great authority and influence. He is shrewd, eccentric, 
and benevolent, and has always been munificent and charit- 
able in his own way ; he patronises the arts and fosters 
rising genius. Painters and sculptors find employment and 
welcome in his house ; he has built a gallery which is full of 



1832] EAEL OF EGREMONT. 337 

pictures and statues, some of which are very fine, and the 
pictures scattered through the house are interesting and 
curious. Lord Egremont hates ceremony, and can't bear to be 
personally meddled with ; he likes people to come and go as 
it suits them, and say nothing about it, never to take leave of 
him. The party here consists of the Oowpers, his own family, 
a Lady E. Eomney, two nieces, Mrs. Tredcroft a neighbour, 
Ridsdale a parson, Wynne, Turner, the great landscape 
painter, and a young artist of the name of Lucas, whom Lord 
Egremont is bringing into notice, and who will owe his for- 
tune (if he makes it) to him. Lord Egremont is enormously 
rich, and lives with an abundant though not very refined 
hospitality. The house wants modern comforts, and the 
servants are rustic and uncouth ; but everything is good, and 
it all bears an air of solid and aristocratic grandeur. The 
stud groom told me there are 300 horses of different sorts 
here. His course, however, is nearly run, and he has the 
mortification of feeling that, though surrounded with children 
and grandchildren, he is almost the last of his race, and that 
his family is about to be extinct. Two old brothers and one 
childless nephew are all that are left of the Wyndhams, and 
the latter has been many years married. All his own chil- 
dren are illegitimate, but he has everything in his power, 
though nobody has any notion of the manner in which he 
will dispose of his property. It is impossible not to reflect 
upon the prodigious wealth of the Earls of Northumberland, 
and of the proud Duke of Somerset who married the last 
heiress of that house, the betrothed of three husbands. All 
that Lord Egremont has, all the Duke of Northumberland's 
property, and the Duke of Rutland's Cambridgeshire estate 
belonged to them, which together is probably equivalent to 
between 200,000L and 300,000/. a year. Banks told me that 
the Northumberland property, when settled on Sir H. Smith- 
son, was not above 12,000Z. a year. 1 

1 [The eleventh Earl of Northumberland, Joscelyn Percy, died in 1G70, 

leaving- an only daughter, who married Charles Seymour, ninth Duke of 

Somerset. This lady is described as 'the betrothed of three husbands,' 

because she was married at fourteen to Henry Cavendish, son of the Duke 

VOL. II. Z 



338 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

Brighton, December 31st. — Lady Howe gave me an account 
of the offer of the Chamberlainship to her husband again. 
They added the condition that he should not oppose Govern- 
ment, but was not to be obliged to support them. This he 
refused, and he regarded the proposal as an insult ; so the 
Queen was not conciliated the more. She likewise told me 
that the cause of her former wrath when he was dismissed 
was that neither the King nor Lord Grey told her of it, and 
that if they had she would have consented to the sacrifice at 
once with a good grace; but in the way it was done she 
thought herself grossly ill-used. It is impossible to ascertain 
the exact nature of this connexion. Howe conducts himself 
towards her like a young ardent lover ; he never is out of 
.the Pavilion, dines there almost every day, or goes every 
evening, rides with her, never quitting her side, and never 
takes his eyes off her. She does nothing, but she admits his 
attentions and acquiesces in his devotion ; at the same time 
there is not the smallest evidence that she treats him as a 
lover. If she did it would be soon known, for she is sur- 
rounded by enemies. All the Fitzclarences dislike her, and 
treat her more or less disrespectfully. She is aware of it, 
but takes no notice. .She is very civil and good-humoured 
to them all ; and as long as they keep within the bounds of 
decency, and do not break out into actual impertinence, she 
probably will continue so. 

of Newcastle, who died in the following year. She was then affianced to 
Thomas Thynne of Longleat, who was assassinated in 1682 ; and at last 
married to the Duke of Somerset. The eldest son of this marriage, Algernon 
Seymour, who succeeded to the Dukedom of Somerset in 1748, was created 
Earl of Northumberland on the 2nd of October, 1749, and Earl of Egremont 
on the following day, with remainder (as regards the latter title) to his 
nephew Sir Charles Wyndham, who succeeded him in February 1750. The 
Earldom of Northumberland passed at the same time to Sir Hugh Smithson, 
son-in-law of Duke Algernon, who was created Duke of Northumberland 
in 1786. The titles and the vast property of the Duke of Somerset, Earl of 
Northumberland, thus came to be divided. 

George O'Brien Wyndham, third Earl of Egremont, to whom Mr. Gre- 
ville paid this visit, was born on the 18th of December, 1751. He was 
therefore eighty-two years old at this time; but he lived five years longer, 
and died in 1837, famous and beloved for his splendid hospitality and for 
his liberal and judicious patronage of the arts, and likewise of the turf.] 



1833] NAMIK PACHA. 339 

Two nights ago there was a great assembly after a dinner 
for the reception of the Turkish Ambassador, Namik Pacha. 
He was brought down by Palmerston and introduced before 
dinner to the King and Queen. He is twenty-eight years 
old, speaks French well, and has good manners ; his dress 
very simple — a red cap, black vest, trousers and boots, a gold 
chain and medal round his neck. He did not take out any 
lady to dinner, but was placed next the Queen. After dinner 
the King made him a ridiculous speech, with abundant 
nourishes about the Sultan and his friendship for him, which 
is the more droll from his having been High Admiral at the 
time of the battle of Navarino, to which the Pacha replied 
in a sonorous voice. He admired everything, and conversed 
with great ease. All the stupid, vulgar Englishwomen fol- 
lowed him about as a lion with offensive curiosity. 



1833. 

January 3rd. — Lady Howe begged her husband to show 
me the correspondence between him and Sir Herbert Taylor 
about the Chamberlain ship. It is long and confused ; Taylor's 
first letter, in my opinion, very impertinent, for it reads him 
a pretty severe lecture about his behaviour when he held the 
office before. Howe is a foolish man, but in this business he 
acted well enough, better than might have been expected. 
Taylor, by the King's desire, proposed to him to resume the 
office ; and after some cavilling he agreed to do so with 
liberty to vote as he pleased, but promising not to be violent. 
So stood the matter on the 9th of September. He heard 
nothing more of it till the 5th of November, when young- 
Hudson l wrote by the King's orders to know definitely if 
he meant to take it, but that if he did he must be ' neutral.' 
Howe wrote back word that on such terms he declined it. I 



1 [' Young Hudson ' was the page of honour who was sent t© Rome in 
the following year to fetch Sir Robert Peel, when, as Mr. Disraeli expressed 
it, ' the hurried Hudson rushed into the chambers of his Vatican.' He grew 
up to be a very able and distinguished diplomatist, Sir James Hudson, G.C.B., 
who rendered great services to the cause of Italian independence.] 

z 2 



340 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

told him my opinion of the whole business, and added my 
strenuous advice that he should immediately prevail on the 
Queen to appoint somebody else. I could not tell him all 
that people said, but I urged it as strongly as I could, hint- 
ing that there were very urgent reasons for so doing. He 
did not relish this advice at all, owned that he clung tena- 
ciously to the office, liked everything about it, and longed to 
avail himself of some change of circumstances to return ; and 
that though he was no longer her officer, he had ever since 
done all the business, and in fact was, without the name, as 
much her Chamberlain as ever. Lady Howe, who is vexed to 
death at the whole thing, was enchanted at my advice, and 
vehemently urged him to adopt it. After he went away she 
told me how glad she was at what I had said, and asked me 
if people did not say and believe everything of Howe's con- 
nexion with the Queen, which I told her they did. I must 
say that what passed is enough to satisfy me that there is 
what is called e nothing in it ' but the folly and vanity of 
being the confidential officer and councillor of this hideous 
Queen, for whom he has worked himself up into a sort of 
chivalrous devotion. Yesterday Howe spoke to the Queen 
about it, and proposed to speak to the King ; the Queen (he 
says) would not hear of it, and forbad his speaking to the 
Xing. To-day he is gone away, and I don't know what he 
settled, probably nothing. 

Lyndhurst dined here the day before yesterday. Finding 
I knew all that had passed about the negotiations for a Tory 
Government in the middle of the Eeform question, he told 
me his story, which differs very little from that which 
Arbuthnot had told me at Downham, and fully corroborates 
his account of the duplicity of Peel and the extraordinary 
conduct of Lyndhurst himself. He said that as soon as he 
had left the King he went to the Duke, who said he must go 
directly to Peel. Peel refused to join. The Duke desired 
him to go back to Peel, and propose to him to be Prime 
Minister and manage everything himself. Peel still declined, 
on which he went to Baring. Baring begged he might con- 



1833] LYNDHUEST AND MANNERS SUTTON. 341 

suit Peel, which was granted. He came hack, said he would 
take office, but that they must invite Manners Sutton also. 
They did so, and Sutton refused. Yesey Fitzgerald, how- 
ever, suggested to Lyndhurst that if they proposed to Sutton 
to be Prime Minister perhaps he would accept. Another 
conversation ensued with Sutton, and a meeting was fixed at 
Apsley House on the Sunday. In the meantime Lyndhurst 
went down to the King and told him what had taken place, 
adding that Sutton would not do, and that the Duke alone 
could form a Government. At Apsley House Sutton talked 
for three hours, and such infernal nonsense that Lyndhurst 
was ready to go mad ; nor would he decide. They pressed 
him to say if he would take office or not. He said he must 
wait till the next morning. They said, 6 It must be very early, 
then.' In the morning he put off deciding (on some frivolous 
pretext) till the afternoon. He went to the House of Com- 
mons without having given any answer. The famous debate 
ensued, and the whole game was up. 

All this tallies with the other account, only he did not 
say that Peel had desired Baring to insist on Sutton, and 
had advised Sutton to take no place but the highest, nor 
that he had without the Duke's knowledge offered Sutton 
that post, and concealed from Sutton his subsequent opinion 
of his incapacity and determination that he should not 
have it. I asked Lyndhurst how he managed with Sutton, 
and whether he had not come to Apsley House with the 
impression on his mind that he was to be Premier. He 
said that ' he had evaded that question with Sutton ' — that 
is, all parties were deceived, while the Duke, who meant to 
act nobly, suffered all the blame. He showed great disregard 
of personal interests and selfish views, but I shall always 
think his error was enormous. It is remarkable that this 
story is so little known. 

They had a dinner and dancing the night before last at 
the Pavilion for New Year's Day ; and the King danced a 
country dance with Lord Amelius Beauclerc, an old Admiral. 

London y January l\th. — Came to town with Alvanley the 
day before yesterday. Howe plucked up courage, spoke to 



842 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

the King and Queen, and settled Denbigh's appointment, 1 
though not without resistance on the part of their Majesties. 
Lord Grey came down, and was very well received by both. 
At the commerce table the King sat by him, and was full of 
jokes ; called him continually c Lord Howe,' to the great 
amusement of the bystanders and of Lord Grey himself. 
Munster came down and was reconciled, condescending 
moyennant a douceur of 2,500Z. to accept the Constableship 
of the Bound Tower. The stories of the King are uncom- 
monly ridiculous. He told Madame de Ludolf, who had been 
Ambassadress at Constantinople, that he desired she would 
recommend Lady Ponsonby to all her friends there, and she 
mio*ht tell them she was the daughter of one of his late 
brother's sultanas (Lady Jersey). His Majesty insisted on 
Lord Stafford's taking the title of Sutherland, and ordered 
Gower to send him an express to say so. One day at dinner 
he asked the Duke of Devonshire ' ivhere he meant to be 
buried ! ' 

I received a few days ago at Brighton the draft of a Bill 
of Brougham's for transferring the jurisdiction of the 
Delegates to the Privy Council, or rather for creating a new 
Court and sinking the Privy Council in it. Lord Lansdowne 
sent it to me, and desired me to send him my opinion upon 
it. I showed it to Stephen, and returned it to Lord 
Lansdowne with some criticisms in which Stephen and I 
had agreed. It is a very bungling piece of work, and one 
which Lord Lansdowne ought not to consent to, the object 
evidently being to make a Court of which Brougham shall 
be at the head, and to transfer to it much of the authority 
of the Crown, Parliament, and Privy Council ; all from his 
ambitious and insatiable desire of personal aggrandisement. 
I have no doubt he is playing a deep game, and paving the 
way for his own accession to power, striving to obtain popu- 
larity and influence with the King ; that he will succeed to a 
great degree, and for a certain time, is probable. Manners 

1 [William Basil Percy, seventh Earl of Denbigh, was appointed Cham- 
berlain to Queen Adelaide at this time, and remained in the service of her 
Majesty — a most excellent and devoted servant — to the close of her life.] 






1833] STATE 03 THE TOEY PAETY. 843 

Sutton is to be again Speaker. Althorp wrote him a very 
flummery letter, and he accepted. The Government wants 
to be out of the scrape they are in between Abercromby and 
Littleton, and Sutton wants his peerage. Everything seems 
prosperous here ; the Government is strong, the House of 
Commons is thought respectable on the whole and safe, trade 
is brisk, funds rising, money plentiful, confidence reviving, 
Tories sulky. 

January 17th. — The Government don't know what to do 
about the embargo on the Dutch ships. Soon after they 
had laid it on they made a second order allowing ships with 
perishable goods to go free ; and thinking the whole thing 
would be soon over, they desired this might be construed 
indulgently, and accordingly many ships were suffered to 
pass (with goods more or less perishing) under that order. 
Now that the King of Holland continues obstinate they 
want to squeeze him, and to construe the order strictly. 
There have been many consultations what to do, whether 
they should make another order rescinding the last or 
execute the former more strictly. Both are liable to objec- 
tions. The first will appear like a cruel proceeding and evi- 
dence of uncertainty of purpose ; the last will show a 
capricious variation in the practice of the Privy Council, with 
which the matter rests. Their wise heads were to be put 
together last night to settle this knotty point. 

Wharncliife showed me a paper he has written, in which, 
after briefly recapitulating the present state of the Tory 
party and the condition of the new Parliament (particularly 
as to the mode in which it was elected, or rather under what 
influence), he proceeds to point out what ought to be the 
course for the Tories to adopt. It is moderate and becoming 
enough, and he has imparted it to the Duke of Wellington, 
who concurs in his view. I wonder, however, that he is not 
sick of writing papers and imparting views, after all that 
passed last year, after his fruitless attempts, his false moves, 
and the treatment he received at the hands of the Tories ; 
but he seems to have forgotten or forgiven everything, and 
is disposed to wriggle himself back amongst the party upon 



344 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

any terms. He acknowledges one thing fully, and that is 
the desperate and woebegone condition of the party itself, 
and the impossibility of their doing anything now as a 
party. 

Lord Lansdowne received very complacently my criti- 
cisms on Brougham's Bill, and has acknowledged since he 
came to town that it would not do at all as it now stands, 
The King has been delighting the Whigs, and making him- 
self more ridiculous and contemptible by the most extrava- 
gant civilities to the new Peers — that is, to Western and 
about Lord Stafford. He now appears to be very fond of his 
Ministers. 

January 19 th. — I have at last succeeded in stimulating 
Lord Lansdowne to something like resistance (or rather the 
promise of it) to Brougham's Bill. I have proved to him 
that his dignity and his interest will both be compromised 
by this Bill, which intends to make the Chancellor President 
of the Court, and ergo of the Council, and to give him all the 
patronage there will be. Against these proposals he kicks ; 
at least he is restive, and shows symptoms of kicking, though 
he will very likely be still again. I sent the Bill to Stephen, 
who instantly and currente calamo drew up a series of objec- 
tions to it, as comprehensive and acute as all his productions 
are, and last night I sent it to Leach (who hates the Chan- 
cellor), and he has returned it to me with a strong condem- 
natory reply. Stephen having told me that Ho wick would 
be too happy to oppose this Bill, on account of the influence 
it would have on Colonial matters, particularly about Canada, 
I took it to him, but he declined interfering, though he con- 
curred in Stephen's remarks. 

January 22nd. — Dined with Talleyrand the day before 
yesterday. Nobody there but his attaches. After dinner he 
told me about his first residence in England, and his ac- 
quaintance with Pox and Pitt. He always talks in a kind 
of affectionate tone about the former, and is now meditating 
a visit to Mrs. Pox at St. Anne's Hill, where he may see her 
surrounded with the busts, pictures, and recollections of her 
husband. He delights to dwell on the simplicity, gaiety, 



{ M, 



1833J VISIT TO HARTWELL. 345 

childishness, and profoundness of Fox. I asked him if he 
had ever known Pitt. He said that Pitt came to Rheims to 
learn French, and he was there at the same time on a visit 
to the Archbishop, his nncle (whom I remember at Hartwell, 1 



1 [Mr. Greville had paid a visit with his father to the little Court of 
Louis XVIII. at Hartwell about two years before the Restoration, when he 
was eighteen years of age. His narrative of this visit has been printed in 
the fifth volume of the ' Miscellany of the Philobiblon Society/ but it may 
not be inappropriately inserted here.] 

A Visit to Hartvyell. 

April 14^, 1814. 

I have often determined to commit to paper as much as I can remember of my 
visit to Hartwell ; and, as the King is about to ascend the throne of his ancestors, 
it is not uninteresting to recall to mind the particulars of a visit paid to him while 
in exile and in poverty. 

About two years ago my father and I went to Hartwell by invitation of the 
King. We dressed at Aylesbury, and proceeded to Hartwell in the afternoon. 
We had previously taken a walk in the environs of the town, and had met the 
Duchesse d'Angouleme on horseback, accompanied by a Madame Choisi. At five 
o'clock we set out to Hartwell. The house is large, but in a dreary, disagreeable 
situation. The King had completely altered the interior, having subdivided almost 
all the apartments in order to lodge a greater number of people. There were 
numerous outhouses, in some of which small shops had been established by the 
servants, interspersed with gardens, so that the place resembled a little town. 

Upon entering the house we were conducted by the Due de Grammont into the 
Kings private apartment. He received us most graciously and shook hands with 
both of us. This apartment was exceedingly small, hardly larger than a closet, 
and I remarked pictures of the late King and Queen, Madame Elizabeth, and the 
Dauphin, Louis XVII., hanging on the w r alls. The King had a manner of swing- 
ing his body backwards and forwards, which caused the most unpleasant sensations 
in that small room, and made my father feel something like being sea-sick. The 
room was just like a cabin, and the motions of his Majesty exactly resembled the 
heaving of a ship. After our audience with the King we were taken to the salon 
a large room with a billiard table at one end. Here the party assembled before 
dinner, to all of whom we were presented — the Duchesse d'Angouleme, Monsieur 
the Due d'Angouleme, the Due de Berri, the Prince and Princess de Conde 
ci-devant Madame de Monaco), and a vast number of dues, &c. ; Madame la 
Duchesse de Serron (a little old dame d'honneur to Madame d'Angouleme), the Due 
de Lorges, the Due d'Auray, the Archeveque de Rheims (an infirm old prelate, 
tortured with the tic-douloureux), and many others whose names I cannot re- 
member. At a little after six dinner was announced, when we went into the next 
room, the King walking out first. The dinner was extremely plain, consisting of 
very few dishes, and no wines except port and sherry. His Majesty did the 
honours himself, and was very civil and agreeable. We were a very short time at 
table, and the ladies and gentlemen all got up together. Each of the ladies folded 
up her napkin, tied it round with a bit of ribbon, and carried it away. After 
dinner we returned to the drawing-room and drank coffee. The whole party 
remained in conversation about a quarter of an hour, when the King retired to 
his closet, upon which all repaired to their separate apartments. Whenever the 



346 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

a very old prelate with the tic-douloureux), and that he and 
Pitt lived together for nearly six weeks, reciprocally teaching- 
each other French and English. After Chanvelin had super- 
seded him, and that he and Chauvelin had disagreed, he 
went to live near Epsom (at Juniper Hall) with Madame de 
Stael; afterwards they came to London, and in the mean- 
time Pitt had got into the hands of the emigres, who per- 
suaded him to send Talleyrand away, and accordingly he 
received orders to quit England in twenty-four hours. He 
embarked on board a vessel for America, but was detained in 
the river off Greenwich. Dundas sent to him, and a,sked 
him to come and stay with him while the ship was detained, 
but he said he' would not set his foot on English ground 
again, and remained three weeks on board the ship in the 
river. It is strange to hear M. de Talleyrand talk at 
seventy-eight. He opens the stores of his memory and pours 
forth a stream on any subject connected with his past life. 
Nothing seems to have escaped from that great treasury of 
bygone events. 

January 24th. — I have at last made Lord Lansdowne 



King came in or went out of the room, Madame d'Angouleme made him a low 
curtsy, which he returned by bowing and kissing his hand. This little ceremony 
never failed to take place. After the party had separated we were taken to the 
Due de Grammont's apartments, where we drank tea. After remaining there 
about three quarters of an hour we went to the apartment of Madame d'Angou- 
leme, where a great part of the company were assembled, and where we stayed 
about a quarter of an hour. After this we descended again to the drawing-room, 
where several card tables were laid out. The King played at whist with the 
Prince and Princess de Conde and my father. His Majesty settled the points of 
the game at 'le quart d'un sheling.' The rest of the party played at billiards or 
ombre. The King was so civil as to invite us to sleep there, instead of returning 
to the inn at Aylesbury. When he invited us he said, ' Je crains que vous serez 
tres-mal loges, mais on donne ce qu'on peut.' Soon after eleven the King retired, 
when we separated for the night. We were certainly ' tres-mal loges.' In the 
morning when I got out of bed, I was alarmed by the appearance of an old woman 
on the leads before my window, who was hanging linen to dry. I was forced to 
retreat hastily to bed, not to shock the old lady's modesty. At ten the next 
morning we breakfasted, and at eleven we took leave of the King (who always 
went to Mass at that hour) and returned to London. We saw the whole place 
before we came away ; and they certainly had shown great ingenuity in contriving 
to lodge such a number of people in and about the house — it was exactly like a 
small rising colony. We were very much pleased with our expedition ; and were 
invited to return whenever we could make it convenient. 






1833] ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 347 

fire a shot at the Chancellor about this Bill. He has 
written him a letter, in which he has embodied Stephen's 
objections and some of his own (as he says, for I did not see 
the letter). The Chancellor will be very angry, for he can't 
endure contradiction, and he has a prodigious contempt 
for the Lord President, whom he calls ' Mother Elizabeth.' 
He probably arrives at the sobriquet through Petty, Betty, 
and so on. 

Dined with Talleyrand yesterday ; Pozzo, who said little 
and seemed low ; Talleyrand talked after dinner, said that 
Cardinal Pleury was one of the greatest Ministers who ever 
governed France, and that justice had never been done him ; 
he had maintained peace for twenty years, and acquired 
Lorraine for France. He said this a propos of the library he 
formed or left, or whatever he did in that line, at Paris. He 
told me he goes very often to the British Museum, and has 
lately made them a present of a book. 

January 26th. — It seems that the Government project (or 
perhaps only the fact that they have one) about West Indian 
emancipation has got wind, and the West Indians are of 
course in a state of great alarm. They believe that it will 
be announced, whatever it is to be, in the King's Speech, 
though I doubt there being anything but a vague intention 
expressed in it. Of all political feelings and passions — and 
such this rage for emancipation is, rather than a considera- 
tion of interest — it has always struck me as the most extra- 
ordinary and remarkable. There can be no doubt that a 
great many of the Abolitionists are actuated by very pure 
motives ; they have been shocked at the cruelties which have 
been and still are very often practised towards slaves, their 
minds are imbued with the horrors they have read and 
heard of, and they have an invincible conviction that the 
state of slavery under any form is repugnant to the spirit of 
the English Constitution and the Christian religion, and 
that it is a stain upon the national character which ought 
to be wiped away. These people, generally speaking, are 
very ignorant concerning all the various difficulties which 
beset the question ; their notions are superficial ; they pity 



318 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

the slaves, whom they regard as injured innocents, and they 
hate their masters, whom they treat as criminal barbarians. 
Others are animated in this cause purely by ambition, and 
by finding that it is a capital subject to talk upon, and a 
cheap and easy species of benevolence ; others have satisfied 
themselves that slavery is a mistaken system, that the 
cruelty of it is altogether gratuitous, and that free labour 
will answer the purpose as well or better, and get rid of the 
odium ; and thousands more have mixed feelings and 
opinions, compounded of some or all of the above in various 
degrees and proportions, according to the bent of individual 
character ; but there are some persons among the most 
zealous and able of the Abolitionists who avail themselves 
of the passions and the ignorance of the people to carry this 
point, while they carefully conceal their own sentiments as 
to the result of the experiment. I say some because, though 
I only know (of my own knowledge) of one, from the sagacity 
of the man and the conformity of his opinions with those of 
others on this and other topics, I have no doubt that there 
are many who view the matter in the same light. I allude to 
Henry Taylor, 1 who rules half the West Indies in the Colonial 
Office, though with an invisible sceptre. Talking over the 
matter the other day, he said that he was well aware of the 
consequences of emancipation both to the negroes and the 
planters. The estates of the latter would not be cultivated ; 
it would be impossible, for want of labour; the negroes 
would not work — no inducement would be sufficient to make 
them ; they wanted to be free merely that they might be 
idle. They would, on being emancipated, possess themselves 
of ground, the fertility of which in those regions is so great 
that very trifling labour will be sufficient to provide them 
with the means of existence, and they will thus relapse 
rapidly into a state of barbarism; they will resume the 
habits of their African brethren, but, he thinks, without the 
ferocity and savageness which distinguish the latter. Of 

1 [Afterwards Sir Henry Taylor, K.M.G., author of ' Philip van Arte- 
velde.' Nearly forty years later Sir H. Taylor continued to fill the same 
position described by Mr. Greville in 1833. He resigned in 1872.] 



1833] HENRY TAYLOR ON ABOLITION OE SLAVERY. 349 

course the germs of civilisation and religion which have 
been sown among them in their servile state will be speedily 
obliterated ; if not, as man must either rise or fall in the 
moral scale, they will acquire strength, with it power, and 
as certainly the desire of using that power for the ameliora- 
tion of their condition. The island (for Jamaica may be 
taken for example, as it was in our conversation) would not 
long be tenable for whites ; indeed, it is difficult to conceive 
how any planters could remain there when their property 
was no longer cultivable, even though the emancipated 
negroes should become as harmless and gentle as the ancient 
Mexicans. Notwithstanding this view of the matter, in 
which my friend has the sagacity to perceive some of the 
probable consequences of the measure, though (he admits) 
with much uncertainty as to its operation, influenced as it 
must be by circumstances and accidents, he is for emanci- 
pating at once. 'Eiat justitia ruat ccelum' — that is, I do 
not know that he is for immediate, unconditional emancipa- 
tion ; I believe not, but he is for doing the deed ; whether 
he goes before or lags after the Government I do not at 
this moment know. He is, too, a high-principled man, full 
of moral sensibility and of a grave, reflecting, philosophical 
character, and neither a visionary in religion nor in politics, 
only of a somewhat austere and uncompromising turn of 
mind, and with some of the positiveness of a theorist who 
has a lofty opinion of his own capacity, and has never 
undergone that discipline of the world, that tumbling and 
tossing and jostling, which beget modesty and diffidence and 
prudence, from the necessity which they inculcate of con- 
stant compromises with antagonist interests and hostile 
passions. But what is the upshot of all this ? Why, 
that in the midst of the uproar and confusion, the smoke 
and the dust of the controversy, one may believe that 
one sees a glimmering of the real futurity in the case — 
and that is a long series of troubles and a wide scene of 
ruin. 

January 30th. — The intentions of Government with re- 
gard to the West Indies (or rather that they have inten- 



350 KEIG-N OF WILLIAM IY. [Chap. XIX. 

tions of a nature very fatal to that interest) having got 
■wind, the consternation of the West India body is great. A 
deputation, headed by Sir Alexander Grant, waited upon 
Lords Grey and Goderich the other day, and put certain 
questions to them, stating that the prevalence of reports, 
some of which had appeared in the newspapers, had greatly 
alarmed them, and they wished to ascertain if any of them 
had been authorised by Government. Lord Grey said 
c certainly not ; the Government had authorised nothing,' 
They asked if he would reappoint the Committees. He 
would give no pledge as to this, but they discussed the 
propriety of so doing, he seeming indisposed. To all their 
questions he gave vague answers, refusing to communicate 
anything except this, that nothing was decided, but a 
plan was under the consideration of the Cabinet in which 
the interests of all parties were consulted. He added that 
he could not pledge himself to give any previous intimation 
of the intentions of Government to the West India body, 
nor to disclose the measure at all until it was proposed 
to Parliament. There are in the meantime no end of re- 
ports of the nature and extent of the proposed measure, 
and no end to the projects and opinions of those who are 
interested. 

I dined at Lord Bathurst's yesterday, and sat next to Lord 
Ellenborough, who said that he was convinced the best thing 
the proprietors could do would be to agree instantly to stop 
their orders, which he believes would compel Government to 
arrest their course. I am not enough acquainted with the 
subject to judge how far they might operate, but I doubt it, 
or that in the temper of the people of this country, or rather 
of those zealots who represent it, and with the disposition 
of this Government to yield to every popular cry, the fear of 
any consequences would prevent their going on. It would, 
I believe, only give them and the House of Commons a pre- 
text for refusing them pecuniary compensation. I was much 
amused with a piece of vanity of Ellenborough's. We were 
talking of the war between the Turks and the Egyptians, 
and the resources of Egypt, &c, when he said, ' If I had 



1833] RUSSIA AND TURKEY. 351 

continued at the Board of Control I would have had Egypt, 
got at it from the Eed Sea ; I had already ordered the forma- 
tion of a corps of Arab guides ! ' 

February 1st. — The Reformed Parliament opened heavily 
(on Tuesday), as Government think satisfactorily. Cobbett 
took his seat on the Treasury Bench, and spoke three times, 
though the last time nobody would stay to hear him. He 
was very twaddling, and said but one good thing, when he 
called O'Connell the member for Ireland. 

Saw Madame de Lieven the day before yesterday, who fired 
a tirade against Governnent ; she vowed that nobody ever had 
been treated with such personal incivility as Lieven, ' des 
injures, des reproches,' that Cobbett, Hunt, and all the 
blackguards in England could not use more offensive lan- 
guage ; whatever event was coming was imputed to Eussia — 
Belgium, Portugal, Turkey, 'tout etait la Russie et les 
intrigues de la Russie ; ' that she foresaw they should be 
driven away from England. With reference to the war 
in Asia Minor, she said the Sultan had applied to the 
Emperor for assistance, ' et qu'il Paurait, et que le Sultan 
n'avait pas un meilleur ami que lui,' that the Egyptians 
would advance no farther, and a great deal more of com- 
plaint at the injustice evinced towards them and on their 
political innocence. In the evening I told all this to Hellish 
of the Foreign Office, who knows everything about foreign 
affairs, and he said it was all a lie, that Russia had offered 
her assistance, which the Sultan had refused, and she was, in 
fact, intriguing and making mischief in every Court in 
Europe. George Yilliers writes me word that she has been 
for months past endeavouring to get up a war anywhere, and 
that this Turkish business is more likely than anything to 
bring one about. 1 

February 2nd. — Dinner at Lord Lansdowne's for the 

1 [The state of the Ottoman Empire was most critical. In the latter 
months of 1832 the victorious troops of Mehomet All had forced their way 
across the Taunus; the peace of Koniah was concluded early in 1833 with 
the Egyptians; and the Treaty of Unlriar Skelessi with the Russians in 

July 1 



352 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

Sheriffs ; soon over and not particularly disagreeable, though 
I hate dining with the Ministers ; had some conversation with 
Goderich about Jamaica ; he says Mulgrave has done very well 
there, perhaps rather too vigorously, that the dissolution of 
the Assembly under all circumstances is questionable, but he 
must be supported ; he hopes nothing from another assembly, 
nor does Mulgrave, who says that they are incorrigible. The 
fact is their conduct paralyses the exertions of their friends 
here, if, indeed, they have any friends who would make any 
exertions. 

February 4th. — At Court for the King's Speech and the 
appointment of Sheriffs. Lord Munster and Lord Denbigh 
were sworn Privy Councillors. The West Indians have taken 
such an attitude of desperation that the Government is some- 
what alarmed, and seems disposed to pause at the adoption 
of its abolitionary measures. George Hibbert told me last 
night that if they were driven to extremities there was 
nothing they were not ready to do, and that there would be 
another panic if Government did not take care, and so 
Eothschild had told them. 

I dined with Madame de Lieven yesterday, who is in the 
agonies of doubt about her remaining here. It turns upon 
this : Stratford Canning has been appointed Ambassador at St. 
Petersburg, and the Emperor will not receive him. Palmers- 
ton is indignant, and will not send anybody else. If the 
Emperor persists, we shall only have a Charge d' Affaires at 
his Court, and in that case he will not leave an Ambassador 
at ours. There seems to be at present no way out of the 
quarrel. Stratford Canning's mission to Madrid cannot last 
for ever, and when it is over the point must be decided. 

The people of Jamaica have presented a petition to the 
King (I don't know exactly in what shape, or how got up), 
praying to be released from their allegiance. Goderich told 
me that it was very insolent. Mulgrave's recent coup de 
theatre is severely condemned. Nothing can save these 
unhappy colonies, for all parties vie with each other in 
violence and folly — the people here and the people there, 
the Government here and the Government there. 









1833] DEBATE ON THE ADDEESS. 353 

February 10th. — After four days' debate in the House of 
Commons (quite unprecedented, I believe) the Address was 
carried by a large majority. 1 Opinions are of course very 
various upon the state of the House and the character of 
the discussion. The anti-Reformers, with a sort of melan- 
choly triumph, boast that their worst expectations have been 
fulfilled. The Government were during the first day or two 
very serious, and though on the whole they think they have 
reason to be satisfied, they cannot help seeing that they 
have in fact very little power of managing the House. 
Everybody agrees that the aspect of the House of Commons 
was very different — the number of strange faces ; the swagger 
of O'Connell, walking about incessantly, and making signs 
to, or talking with, his followers in various parts ; the Tories 
few and scattered ; Peel no longer surrounded with a stout 
band of supporters, but pushed from his usual seat, which is 
occupied by Cobbett, O'Connell, and the Radicals ; he is gone 
up nearer to the Speaker. 

The whole debate turned upon Ireland. O'Connell pro- 
nounced a violent but powerful philippic, which Stanley 
answered very well. Macaulay made one of his brilliant 
speeches the second night, and Peel spoke the third. It was 
not possible to make a more dexterous and judicious speech 
than he did ; for finding himself in a very uncomfortable 
position, he at once placed himself in a good one, and 
acknowledging that his situation was altogether different 
from what it had been, he contrived to transfer to himself 
personally much of the weight and authority which he 
previously held as the organ and head of a great and power- 
ful party. He pronounced an eulogium of Stanley, declared 
that his confidence in Government was not augmented, but 
that he would support them if they would support law and 
order. The Government were extremely pleased at his 
speech, though I think not without a secret misgiving that 
they are likely to be more in his power than is pleasant. 

1 [The first Reformed Parliament met and was formally opened on the 
L>0 th of January, 1833. After the election of the Speaker (Manners Sutton) 
the King- delivered his Speech from the Throne on the 5th of February.] 

VOL. II. A A 



354 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XIX. 

But the benefit resulting from the whole is that the Radicals 
all opposed the Government, while Peel supported them ; so 
that we may hope that a complete line of separation is 
drawn between the two former, and that the Government 
will really and boldly take the Conservative side. On the 
whole, perhaps, this bout may be deemed satisfactory. 

February 14th. — The night before last Althorp brought 
forward his plan of Irish Church Reform, with complete suc- 
cess. He did it well, and Stanley made a very brilliant 
speech. The House received it with almost unanimous ap- 
plause, nobody opposing but Inglis and Goulburn, and Peel, 
in a very feeble speech, which scarcely deserves the name of 
opposition ; it will be of great service to the Government. 
O'Connell lauded the measure up to the skies ; but Sheil said 
he would bite his tongue off with vexation the next morning 
for having done so, after he had slept upon it. It was clear 
that Peel, who is courting the House, and exerting all his 
dexterity to bring men's minds round to him, saw the stream 
was too strong for him to go against it, so he made a sort of 
temporising, moderate, unmeaning speech, which will give 
him time to determine on his best course, and did not commit 
him. Poulett Thomson said to me yesterday that Peel's 
prodigious superiority over everybody in the House was so 
evident, his talent for debate and thorough knowledge of 
Parliamentary tactics, gained by twenty } r ears of experience, 
so commanding, that he must draw men's minds to him, and 
that he was evidently playing that game, throwing over the 
ultra-Tories and ingratiating himself with the House and 
the country. He, in fact, means to open a house to all comers, 
and make himself necessary and indispensable. Under that 
placid exterior he conceals, I believe, a boundless ambition, 
and hatred and jealousy lurk under his professions of esteem 
and political attachment. His is one of those contradictory 
characters, containing in it so much of mixed good and evil, 
that it is difficult to strike an accurate balance between the 
two, and the acts of his political life are of a corresponding 
description, of questionable utility and merit, though always 
marked by great ability. It is very sure that he has been 



1833] CHAEACTEK OF PEEL. 355 

the instrument of great good, or of enormous evil, and ap- 
parently more of the latter. He came into life the child 
and champion of a political system which has been for a 
long time crumbling to pieces ; and if the perils which are 
produced by its fall are great, they are mainly attributable 
to the manner in which it was upheld by Peel, and to his 
want of sagacity, in a wrong estimate of his means of de- 
fence and of the force of the antagonist power with which 
he had to contend. The leading principles of his political 
conduct have been constantly erroneous, and his dexterity 
and ability in supporting them have only made the conse- 
quences of his errors more extensively pernicious. If we 
look back through the long course of Peel's life, and enquire 
what have been the great political measures with which his 
name is particularly connected, we shall find, first, the return 
to cash payments, which almost everybody now agrees was 
a fatal mistake, though it would not be fair to visit him with 
extraordinary censure for a measure which was sanctioned 
by almost all the great financial authorities ; secondly, op- 
position to Eeform in Parliament and to religious emancipa- 
tion of every kind, the maintenance of the exclusive system, 
and support, untouched and uncorrected, of the Church, both 
English and Irish. His resistance to alterations on these 
heads was conducted with great ability, and for a long time 
with success ; but he was endeavouring to uphold a system 
which was no longer supportable, and having imbibed in his. 
career much of the liberal spirit of the age, he found himself 
in a state of no small perplexity between his old connections 
and his more enlarged propensities. Still he was chained 
down by the former, and consequently being beaten from all 
his positions, he was continually obliged to give way, but 
never did so till rather too late for his own credit and much 
too late for the interest at stake. Notwithstanding, there- 
fore, the reputation he has acquired, the hold he has had of 
office, and is probabty destined to have again, his political 
life has been a considerable failure, though not such an one 
as to render it more probable than not that his future life 

A A 2 



356 



EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. 



[Chap. XIX. 



will be a failure too. He has hitherto been encumbered with 
embarrassing questions and an unmanageable party. Time 
has disposed of the first, and he is divorced from the last ; 
if his great experience and talents have a fair field to act 
upon, he may yet, in spite of his selfish and unamiable cha- 
racter, be a distinguished and successful Minister. 






35! 



CHAPTER XX. 

Appointment of Sir Stratford Canning to the Kussian Embassy — Cause of 
the Refusal — Slavery in the West Indies — The Reformed Parliament — 
Duke of Wellington's View of Affairs — The Coercion Bill — The Privy 
Council Bill — Lord Durham made an Earl — Mr. Stanley Secretary for the 
Colonies — The Russians go to the Assistance of the Porte — Lord Goderich 
has the Privy Seal, an Earldom, and the Garter — Embarrassments of the 
Government — The Appeal of Drax v. Grosvenor at the Privy Council 
— Hobhouse defeated in Westminster — Bill for Negro Emancipation — 
The Russians on the Bosphorus — Mr. Littleton Chief Secretary for 
Ireland — Respect shown to the Duke of Wellington — Moral of a ' Book 
on the Derby' — The Oaks — A Betting Incident — Ascot — Government 
beaten in the Lords on Foreign Policy — Vote of Confidence in the 
Commons — Drax v. Grosvenor decided — Lord Eldon's Last Judgment — 
His Character — Duke of Wellington as Leader of Opposition — West 
India Affairs — Irish Church Bill — Appropriation Clause — A Fancy 
Bazaar — The King writes to the Bishops — Local Court Bill — Mirabeau. 

February 16th. — Madame de Lieven gave me an account 
(the day before yesterday) of the quarrel between the two 
Courts about Stratford Canning. When the present Ministry 
came in, Nesselrode wrote to Madame de Lieven and desired 
her to beg that Lord Heytesbury might be left there — ' Con- 
servez-nous Heytesbury.' She asked Palmerston and Lord 
Grey, and they both promised her he should stay. Some 
time after he asked to be recalled. She wrote word to 
Nesselrode, and told him that either Adair or Canning would 
succeed him. He replied, ' Don't let it be Canning ; he is 
a most impracticable man, soupconneux, pointilleux, defiant ; ' 
that he had been personally uncivil to the Emperor when he 
was Grand Duke ; in short the plain truth was they would 
not receive him, and it was therefore desirable somebody, 
anybody, else should be sent. She told this to Palmerston, 
and he engaged that Stratford Canning should not be named. 



358 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

Nothing more was done till some time ago, when to her asto- 
nishment Palmerston told her that he was going to send 
Canning to St. Petersburg. She remonstrated, nrged all the 
objections of her Court, his own engagement, but in vain ; the 
discussions between them grew bitter ; Palmerston would not 
give way, and Canning was one day to her horror gazetted. 
As might have been expected, Nesselrode positively refused 
to receive him. Durham, who in the meantime had been to 
Russia and bien comble with civilities, promised that Canning 
should not go there, trusting he had sufficient influence to 
prevent it ; and since he has been at home it is one of the 
things he has been most violent and bitter about, because 
Palmerston will not retract this nomination, and he has the 
mortification of finding in this instance his own want of power. 
However, as there have been no discussions on it lately, the 
Princess still hopes it may blow over, and that some other 
mission may be found for Canning. At all events it appears 
a most curious piece of diplomacy to insist upon thrusting 
upon a Court a man personally obnoxious to the Sovereign 
and his Minister, and not the best way of preserving har- 
monious relations or obtaining political advantages. She 
says, however (and with all her anger she is no bad judge), 
that Palmerston c est un tres -petit esprit — lourd, obstine,' 
&c, and she is astonished how Lady C. with her finesse can 
be so taken with him. 

Lady Cowper has since told me that Madame de Lieven 
has been to blame in all this business, that Palmerston was 
provoked with her interference, that her temper had got the 
better of her, and she had thought to carry it with a high 
hand, having been used to have her own way, and that he 
had thought both she and her Court wanted to be taken down 
a peg ; that she had told Nesselrode she could prevent this 
appointment, and, what had done more harm than anything, 
she had appealed to Grey against Palmerston, and employed 
Durham to make a great clamour about it. All this made 
Palmerston angry, and determined him to punish her, who 
he thought had meddled more than she ought, and had made 
the matter personally embarrassing and disagreeable to him. 



1833] LOED GKEY'S COEECION BILL. 359 

Last night Lord Grey introduced his coercive measures 
in an excellent speech, though there are some people who 
doubt his being able to carry them through the House of 
Commons. If he can't, he goes of course ; and what next ? 
The measures are sufficiently strong, it must be owned — a 
consomme of insurrection-gagging Acts, suspension of Habeas 
Corpus, martial law, and one or two other little hards and 
sharps. 1 

London, February 22nd. — Dined yesterday with Fortunatus 
Dwarris, who was counsel to the Board of Health; one of 
those dinners that people in that class of society put them- 
selves in an agony to give, and generally their guests in 
as greab an agony to partake of. There were Goulburn, 
Serjeant ditto and his wife, Stephen, &c. Goulburn men- 
tioned a curious thing a propos of slavery. A slave ran away 
from his estate in Jamaica many years ago, and got to 
England. He (the man) called at his house when he was not 
at home, and Goulburn never could afterwards find out where 
he was. He remained in England, however, gaining his live- 
lihood by some means, till after some years he returned to 
Jamaica and to the estate, and desired to be employed as a 
slave again. 

Stephen, who is one of the great apostles of emancipation, 
and who resigned a profession worth 3,000L a year at the 
Bar for a place of 1,500?. in the Colonial Office, principally in 

1 [In the debate on the Address 0'Coni|ell had denounced the coercive 
measures announced in the Speech from the Throne as ' brutal, bloody, and 
unconstitutional.' But the state of Ireland was so dreadful that it de- 
manded and justified the severest remedies. Lord Grey stated in the House 
of Lords that between January 1st and December 31st 9,000 crimes had 
been committed — homicides 242, robberies 1,179, burglaries 401, burnings 
568, and so on. The Bill gave the Lord-Lieutenant power to proclaim 
disturbed districts, to substitute courts-martial for the ordinary courts of 
justice, to prohibit meetings, and to punish the distributors of seditious 
papers. Such were the powers which Lord Wellesley described as more 
formidable to himself than to the people of Ireland, for the greater part of 
them were never exercised. The Act produced the desired effect. In a 
year Ireland was pacified ; and the abandonment of several of the most 
important clauses in the Act (contrary to Lord Grey's wishes) was the 
cause which led to the dissolution of the Ministry in the month of June 
1834.] 



360 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

order to advance that object, owned that he had never known 
so great a problem nor so difficult a question to settle. His 
notion is that compulsory labour may be substituted for 
slavery, and in some colonies (the new ones, as they are 
called — Demerara, &c.) he thinks it will not be difficult ; in 
Jamaica he is doubtful, and admits that if this does not 
answer the slaves will relapse into barbarism, nor is he at 
all clear that any disorders and evils may not be produced 
by the effect of desperation on one side and disappointment 
on the other ; still he does not hesitate to go on, but fully 
admitting the right of the proprietors to ample compensation, 
and the duty incumbent on the country to give it. If the 
sentiments of justice and benevolence with which he is 
actuated were common to all who profess the same opinions, 
or if the same sagacity and resource which he possesses were 
likely to be applied to the practical operation of the scheme, 
the evils which are dreaded and foreseen might be mitigated 
and avoided; but this is very far from the case, and the 
evils will, in all probability, more than overbalance the good 
which humanity aims at effecting ; nor is it possible to view 
the settlement (as it is called, for all changes are settlements 
now-a-days) of this question without a misgiving that it will 
oniy produce some other great topic for public agitation, 
some great interest to be overturned or mighty change to 
be accomplished. The public appetite for discussion and 
legislation has been whetted and is insatiable ; the millions 
of orators and legislators who have sprung up like mushrooms 
all over the kingdom, the bellowers, the chatterers, the 
knaves, and the dupes, who make such an universal hubbub, 
must be fed with fresh victims and sacrifices. The Catholic 
question was speedily followed by Reform in Parliament, and 
this has opened a door to anything. 

In the meantime the Reformed Parliament has been 
sitting for a fortnight or so, and begins to manifest its 
character and pretensions. The first thing that strikes one 
is its inferiority in point of composition to preceding 
Houses of Commons, and the presumption, impertinence, 
and self-sufficiency of the new members. Formerly new 



1833] ASPECT OF THE NEW HOUSE OF COMMONS. 361 

members appeared with some modesty and diffidence, and 
with some appearance of respect for the assembly into which 
they were admitted ; these fellows behave themselves as if 
they had taken it by storm, and might riot in all the inso- 
lence of victory. There exists no party but that of the 
Government ; the Irish act in a body under O'Connell to the 
number of about forty ; the Radicals are scattered up and 
down without a leader, numerous, restless, turbulent, and 
bold — Hume, Cobbett, and a multitude such as Roebuck, 
Faithfull, Buckingham, Major Beauclerck, &c. (most of 
whom have totally failed in point of speaking) — bent upon 
doing all the mischief they can and incessantly active ; the 
Tories without a head, frightened, angry, and sulky ; Peel 
without a party, prudent, cautious, and dexterous, playing a 
deep waiting game of scrutiny and observation. The feel- 
ings of these various elements of party, rather than parties, 
may be thus summed up : — The Eadicals are confident and 
sanguine; the Whigs uneasy; the Tories desponding; mode- 
rate men, who belong to no party, but support Government, 
serious, and not without alarm. There is, in fact, enough 
to justify alarm, for the Government has evidently no power 
over the House of Commons, and though it is probable that 
they will scramble through the session without sustaining 
any serious defeat, or being reduced to the necessity of any 
great sacrifice or compromise, they are conscious of their 
own want of authority and of that sort of command without 
which no Government has been hitherto deemed secure. 
The evil of this is that we are now reduced to the alterna- 
tive of Lord Grey's Government or none at all ; and should 
he be defeated on any great measure, he must either aban- 
don the country to its fate, or consent to carry on the 
Government upon the condition of a virtual transfer of the 
executive power to the House of Commons. If this comes 
to pass the game is up, for this House, like animals who 
have once tasted blood, if it ever exercises such a power as 
this, and finds a Minister consenting to hold office on such 
terms, will never rest till it has acquired all the authority of 
the Long Parliament and reduced that of the Crown to a 



362 [REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

mere cypher. It is curious, by-the-bye, that the example of 
the Long Parliament in a trivial matter has just been adopted, 
in the sittings of the House at twelve o'clock for the hearing 
of petitions. 

February 27th. — Laid up ever since that dinner at 
Dwarris's with the gout. Frederick Fitzclarence has been 
compelled to resign the situation at the Tower which the 
King gave him ; they found it very probable that the House 
of Commons would refuse to vote the pay of it — a trifle in 
itself, but indicative of the spirit of the times and the total 
want of consideration for the King. O'Connell made a 
speech of such violence at the Trades Union the other day — 
calling the House of Commons six hundred scoundrels — that 
there was a great deal of talk about taking it up in Parlia- 
ment and proposing his expulsion, which, however, they 
have not had the folly to do. The Irish Bill was to come on 
last night. The sense of insecurity and uneasiness evidently 
increases ; the Government assumes a high tone, but is not 
at all certain of its ability to pass the Coercive Bills unaltered, 
and yesterday there appeared an article in the ' Times ' in a 
sty]e of lofty reproof and severe admonition, which was no 
doubt as appalling as it was meant to be. This article 
made what is called a great sensation ; always struggling, 
as this paper does, to take the lead of public opinion and 
watching all its turns and shifts with perpetual anxiety, it is 
at once regarded as undoubted evidence of its direction and 
dreaded for the influence which its powerful writing and 
extensive sale have placed in its hands. It is no small 
homage to the power of the press to see that an article like 
this makes as much noise as the declaration of a powerful 
Minister or a leader of Opposition could do in either House 
of Parliament. 

Yesterday morning the Duke of Wellington came here 
upon some private business, after discussing which he entered 
upon the state of the country. I told him my view of the 
condition of the Government and of the House of Commons, 
and he said, ' You have hit the two points that I have 
myself always felt so strongly about. I told Lord Grey so 



1833] DUKE OF WELLINGTON'S VIEW OF AFFAIES. 363 

long ago, and asked him at the time how he expected to be 
able to carry on the Government of the country, to which he 
never could give any answer, except that it would all do very 
well. However, things are not a bit worse than I always 
thought they would be. As they are, I mean to support the 
Government — support them in every way. The first thing I 
have to look to is to keep my house over my head, and the 
alternative is between this Government and none at all. I 
am therefore for supporting the Government, but then there 
is so much passion, and prejudice, and folly, and vindictive 
feeling, that it is very difficult to get others to do the same. 
I hear Peel had only fifty people with him the other night 
on some question, though they say that there are 150 of 
that party in the House of Commons.' He thinks as ill of 
the whole thing as possible. [While I am writing Poodle 
Byng is come in, who tells me what happened last night. 
Althorp made a very bad speech and a wretched statement ; 
other people spoke, pert and disagreeable, and the debate 
looked ill till Stanley rose and made one of the finest 
speeches that were ever heard, pounding O'Connell to dust 
and attacking him for his ' six hundred scoundrels,' from 
which he endeavoured to escape by a miserable and abortive 
explanation. Stanley seems to have set the whole thing to 
rights, like a great man.] 

I told the Duke what Macaulay had said to Denison: ' that 
if he had had to legislate, he would, instead of this Bill, have 
suspended the laws for five years in Ireland, given the Lord- 
Lieutenant's proclamation the force of law, and got the 
Duke of Wellington to go there. 5 He seemed very well 
pleased at this, and said, ' Well, that is the way I governed 
the provinces on the Garonne in the south of France. I 
desired the mayors to go on administering the law of the 
land, and when they asked me in whose name criminal suits 
should be carried on (which were ordinarily in the name of 
the Emperor), and if they should be in the name of the 
King, I said no, that we were treating with the Emperor at 
Chatillon, and if they put forth the King they would be in 
a scrape ; neither should it be in the Emperor's name, be- 



364 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

cause we did not acknowledge him, but in that of the 
Allied Powers.' In this I think he was wrong (par par en- 
these), for Napoleon was acknowledged by all the Powers 
but us, and we were treating with him, and if he permitted 
the civil authorities to administer the law as usual, he should 
have allowed them to administer it in the usual legal form. 
Their civil administration could not affect any political 
questions in the slightest degree. 

March 4th. — Sir Thomas Hardy told my brother he 
thought the King would certainly go mad; he was so excit- 
able, loathing his Ministers, particularly Graham, and dying 
to go to war. He has some of the cunning of madmen, who 
fawn upon their keepers when looked at by them, and grin 
at them and shake their fists when their backs are turned ; 
so he is extravagantly civil when his Ministers are with him, 
and exhibits every mark of aversion when they are away. 
Peel made an admirable speech on Friday night; they 
expect a great majority. 

March 13th. — The second reading of the Coercive Bill has 
passed by a great majority after a dull debate, and the other 
night Althorp deeply offended Peel and the Tories by hurrying 
on the Church Reform Bill. It was to be printed one day, 
and the second reading taken two days after. They asked 
a delay of four or five days, and Althorp refused. He did 
very wrong; he is either bullied or cajoled into almost any- 
thing the Radicals want of this sort, but he is stout against 
the Tories. The delay is required by decency, but it ought 
to have been enough that Peel and the others asked it for 
him to concede it. He ought to soften the asperities which 
must long survive the battles of last year as much as he can, 
and avoid shocking what he may consider the prejudices of 
the vanquished party. It was worse than impolitic ; it was 
stupid and uncourteous, and missing an opportunity of being 
gracious which he ought to have seized. 

I have been again worried with a new edition of 
Brougham's Privy Council Bill, 1 and the difficulty of getting 

1 [This was the Bill for the establishment of a Judicial Committee of the 
Privy Council, which eventually became the Act 3 & 4 Will. IV., cap. 41, and 



1833] LOED BROUGHAM'S PRIVY COUNCIL BILL. 365 

Lord Lansdowne to do anything. This is the way Brougham 
goes to work : — He resolves to alter ; he does not condescend 
to communicate with the Privy Council, or to consult those 
who are conversant with its practice, or who have been in 
the habit of administering justice there ; he has not time to 
think of it himself; he tosses to one of his numerous employes 
(for he has people without end working for him) his rough 
notion, and tells him to put it into shape ; the satellite goes 
to work, always keeping in view the increase of the dignity, 
authority, and patronage of the Chancellor, and careless of 
the Council, the King, and the usages of the Constitution. 
What is called the Bill is then, for form's sake, handed over 
to the Lord President (Lord Lansdowne), with injunctions to 
let nobody see it, as if he was conspiring against the Coun- 
cil, secure that if he meets with no resistance but what is 
engendered by Lord Lansdowne's opposition he may enact 
anything he pleases. Lord Lansdowne sends it to me (a 
long Act of Parliament), with a request that I will return it 
6 by the bearer, 9 with any remarks I may have to make on it. 
The end is that I am left, quantum impar, to fight this with 
the Chancellor. 

March loth. — Ministerial changes are going on ; Durham 
is out, and to be made an earl. Yesterday his elevation was 
known, and it is amusing enough that the same day an 
incident should have occurred in the House of Lords exhibit- 
ing in a good light the worthiness of the subject, and how 
much he merits it at the hands of Lord Grey. 

March 29th. — Lord Goderich is Privy Seal, 1 and Stanley 
Secretary for the Colonies, after much trouble. Last year a 

definitively created that tribunal. Mr. Greville objected to several of the 
provisions of the measure, because he regarded them as an unnecessary 
interference of Parliament with the authority of the Sovereign in his 
Council. The Sovereign might undoubtedly have created a Committee of 
the judicial members of the Privy Council: but the Bill went further, and 
by extending and defining the power of the Judicial Committee as a Court 
of Appeal it undoubtedly proved a very useful and important measure] 

1 [Down to this time Lord Goderich had been Secretary for the Colonial 
Department in Lord Grey's Government.] 



366 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

positive pledge was given to Stanley that he should not 
meet Parliament again but as Secretary of State. It was 
not, however, specified who was to make room for him. 
The Cabinet settled that it should be Goderich, when 
Durham went out, and Palmerston was charged with the 
office of breaking it to Goderich with the offer of an earldom 
by way of gilding the pill, but Goderich would not hear of 
it, said it would look like running away from the Slave 
question, and, in short, flatly refused. Stanley threatened to 
resign if he was not promoted, and in this dilemma the Duke 
of Richmond (who was going to Windsor) persuaded Lord 
Grey to let him lay the case before the King, and inform him 
that if this arrangement was not made the Government must 
be broken up. He did so, and the King acquiesced, and at 
the same time a similar representation was made to Goderich, 
who after a desperate resistance knocked under, and said 
that if it must be so he would yield, but only to the King's 
express commands. 

March 30th. — Saw Madame de Lieven yesterday, who 
told me the story of the late business at St. Petersburg. The 
Sultan after the battle of Koniah applied to the Emperor of 
Russia for succour, who ordered twelve sail of the line and 
30,000 men to go to the protection of Constantinople. At 
the same time General Mouravieff was sent to Constantinople, 
with orders to proceed to Alexandria and inform the Pacha 
that the Emperor could only look upon him as a rebel, that 
he would not suffer the Ottoman Empire to be overturned, 
and that if Ibrahim advanced ' il aurait affaire a l'Empereur 
de Russie.' Orders were accordingly sent to Ibrahim to 
suspend his operations, and Mouravieff returned to Constanti- 
nople. Upon the demand for succour by the Sultan, and 
the Emperor's compliance with it, notification was made 
to all the Courts, and instructions were given to the 
Russian commanders to retire as soon as the Sultan should 
have no further occasion for their aid. So satisfactory was 
this that Lord Grey expressed the greatest anxiety that the 
Russian armament should arrive in time to arrest the pro- 
gress of the Egyptians. They did arrive — at least the fleet 






1833] PEECAEIOUS STATE OF THE GOVEENMENT. 367 

did — and dropped anchor under the Seraglio. At this junc- 
ture arrived Admiral Eoussin in a ship of war, and as 
Ambassador of France. He immediately informed the 
Sultan that the interposition of Eussia was superfluous, that 
he would undertake to conclude a treaty, and to answer for 
the acquiescence of the Pacha, and he sent a project one 
article of which was that the Russian fleet should instantly 
withdraw. To this proposition the Sultan acceded, and 
without waiting for the Pacha's confirmation he notified to 
the Eussian Ambassador that he had no longer any wish 
for the presence of the Eussian fleet, and they accordingly 
weighed anchor and sailed away. This is all that is known 
of the transaction, but Madame de Lieven was loud and vehe- 
ment about the insolence of Eoussin; she said the Emperor 
would demand c une satisfaction eclatante ' — ' le rappel et le 
desaveu de l'amiral Eoussin,' and that if this should be re- 
fused the Eussian Ambassador would be ordered to quit Paris. 
She waits with great anxiety to see the end of the business, 
for on it appears to depend the question of peace or war 
with France. She said that the day before Namik went away 
intelligence of this event arrived, which Palmerston commu- 
nicated to him. The Turk heard it very quietly, and then 
only said, ' Et ou etait l'Angleterre dans tout ceci ? ' 

I have heard to-night the Goderich version of his late 
translation. He had agreed to remain in the Cabinet with- 
out an office, but Lord Grey insisted on his taking the Privy 
Seal, and threatened to resign if he did not ; he was at 
last bullied into acquiescence, and when he had his audience 
of the King his Majesty offered him anything he had to 
give. He said he had made the sacrifice to please and serve 
him, and would take nothing. An earldom — he refused ; 
the Bath — ditto ; the Garter — that he said he would take. 
It was then discovered that he was not of rank sufficient, 
when he said he would take the earldom in order to qualify 
himself for the Garter, and so it stands. There is no Garter 
vacant, and one supernumerary already, and Castlereagh 
and Lord North, viscounts, and Sir Eobert Walpole (all 
Commoners) had blue ribands ! 



368 EEIGN OP WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

London, April 28th. — Came to town last night from New- 
market, and the intervening week at Buckenham. Nothing 
but racing and hawking; a wretched life — that is, a life of 
amusement, but very unprofitable and discreditable to any- 
body who can do better things. Of politics I know nothing 
during this interval, but on coming to town find all in con- 
fusion, and everybody gaping for 'what next.' Government 
was beaten on the Malt Tax, and Lord Grey proposed to re- 
sign ; the Tories are glad that the Government is embarrassed, 
no matter how, the supporters sorry and repentant, so that 
it is very clear the matter will be patched up ; they won't 
budge, and will probably get more regular support for the 
future. Perhaps Althorp will go, but where to find a 
Chancellor of the Exchequer will be the difficulty. Poulett 
Thomson wants it, but they will not dare commit the 
finances of the country to him, so we go scrambling on e du 
jour la journee.' Nobody knows what is to happen next — no 
confidence, no security, great talk of a property tax, to 
which, I suppose, after wriggling about, we shall at last come. 

May 2nd. — The Government affair is patched up, and 
nobody goes but Hobhouse, 1 who thought fit to resign both 
his seat in Parliament and his office, thereby creating another 
great embarrassment, which can only be removed by his 
re-election and re-appointment, and then, what a farce ! 

There were two great majorities in the House of Commons 
the night before last. The King was all graciousness and 
favour to Lord Grey, and so they are set up again, and fancy 
themselves stronger than before. But although everybody 
(except the fools) wished them to be re-established, it was 
evident that this was only because, at this moment, the time 
is not ripe for a change, for they inspired no interest either 
individually or collectively. It was easy to see that the 
Government has no consideration, and that people are 

1 [Sir John Hobhouse, who had consented to take the Irish Secretary- 
ship a month before, resigned now because he felt unable to oppose a 
resolution for the abolition of the window duties; and resigning office he 
resigned his seat for Westminster also, and was not re-elected. See in the 
< Edinburgh Eeview/ April 1871 (No. 272), an account of this trans- 
action."] 



1833] EMBARRASSMENT OF THE GOVERNMENT. 369 

getting- tired of their blunders and embarrassments, and 
begin to turn their eyes to those who are more capable, and 
know something of the business of Government — to Peel and 
to Stanley, for the former, in spite of his cold, calculating 
selfishness and duplicity, is the ablest man there is, and we 
must take what we can get, and accept services without 
troubling ourselves about the motives of those who supply 
them. It must come to this conclusion unless the reign of 
Eadicalism and the authority of the Humes ' et hoc genus 
omne ' is to be substituted. That the present Government 
loses ground every day is perfectly clear, and at the same 
time that the fruits of the Reform Bill become more lament- 
ably apparent. The scrape Government lately got into was 
owing partly to the votes that people were obliged to give to 
curry favour with their constituents, and partly to negligence 
and carelessness in whipping in. Hobhouse's resignation is 
on account of his pledges, and because he is forced to pledge 
himself on the hustings he finds himself placed in a situation 
which compels him to save his honour and consistency by 
embarrassing the public service to the greatest' degree at a 
very critical time. Men go on asking one another how is it 
possible the country can be governed in this manner, and 
nobody can reply. 

Since I have been out of town the appeal against the 
Chancellor's judgment in the Drax (lunacy) case has been 
heard at the Privy Council, and will be finally determined on 
Saturday. 1 Two years have nearly elapsed since that case 

1 [An appeal lies to the King in Council from orders of the Lord 
Chancellor in lunacy, but there are very few examples of the prosecution 
of appeals of this nature. This case of Drax v. Grosvenor, which is re- 
ported in ' Knapp's Privy Council Cases,' was therefore one of great 
peculiarity. The Bill constituting the Judicial Committee had not at this 
time become law ; this appeal was therefore heard by a Committee of the 
Lords of the Council, to which any member of the Privy Council might be 
summoned. Care was taken that the highest legal authorities should be 
present. It was the last time Lord Eldon sat in a court of law. Lord 
Brougham, the Chancellor, sat on the Committee, although the appeal was 
brought from an order made by himself: this practice had not been un- 
common in the House of Lords, but it had not been the practice of the 
Privy Council, where indeed the case could seldom arise.] 

VOL. II. B B 



370 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

was lodged, and the Chancellor has always found pretexts 
for getting the hearing postponed ; at length the parties 
became so clamorous that it was necessary to fix a day. He 
then endeavoured to pack a committee, and spoke to Lord 
Lansdowne about summoning Lord Plunket, Lord Lyndhurst, 
and the Yice-Chancellor, but Leach, who hates Brougham, 
and is particularly nettled at his having reversed some of his 
judgments, bestirred himself, and represented to Lord Lans- 
downe the absolute necessity (in a case of such consequence) 
of having all the ex-Chancellors to hear it. Plunket was 
gone to Ireland, so the Committee consisted of the Lord 
President, the Chancellor, Yice-Chancellor, Master of the 
Rolls, Lords Eldon, Lyndhurst, and Manners. They say the 
argument was very able — Sugden in support of the Chan- 
cellor's judgment, and Pemberton against it; they expect it 
will be reversed. Leach, foolishly enough, by question and 
observation, exhibited a strong bias against the Chancellor, 
who never said a word, and appeared very calm and easy, 
but with rage in his heart, for he was indignant at these 
Lords having been summoned (as his secretary told Lennard 1 ), 
and said ' he was sure it was all Leach's doing.' What a 
man ! how wonderful ! how despicable ! carrying into the 
administration of justice the petty vanity, personal jealousy 
and pique, and shuffling arts that would reflect ridicule and 
odium on a silly woman of fashion. He has smuggled his 
Privy Council Bill through the House of Lords without the 
slightest notice or remark. 

May 16th. — On coming to town found the Westminster 
election just over, and Evans returned. They would not 
hear Hobhouse, and pelted him and his friends. JNb 
Secretary for Ireland is to be found, for the man must be 
competent, and sure of re-election. Few are the first and 
none the last. Hobhouse is generally censured for having 
put Government in this great difficulty, but the Tories see it 
all with a sort of grim satisfaction, and point at it as a happy 
illustration of the benefits of the Eeform Bill. I point too, 
but I don't rejoice. 

1 [John Barrett Lennard, Esq., -was Chief Clerk of the Council Office.] 



1833] SLAVE EMANCIPATION. 371 

At the same time with. Hobhouse's defeat came forth 
Stanley's plan for slave emancipation, which produced rage 
and fury among both West Indians and Saints, being too 
much for the former and not enough for the latter, and both 
announced their opposition to it. Practical men. declare 
that it is impossible to carry it into effect, and that the 
details are unmanageable. Even the Government adherents 
do not pretend that it is a good and safe measure, but the 
best that could be hit off under the circumstances; these 
circumstances being the old motive, c the people will have it.' 
The night before last Stanley developed his plan in the 
House of Commons in a speech of three hours, which was 
very eloquent, but rather disappointing. He handled the 
preliminary topics of horrors of slavery and colonial obstinacy 
and misconduct with all the vigour and success that might 
have been expected, but when he came to his measure he 
failed to show how it was to be put in operation and to work. 
The peroration and eulogy on Wilberforce were very brilliant. 
Howick had previously announced his intention of opposing 
Stanley, and accordingly he did so in a speech of consider- 
able vehemence which lasted two hours. He was not, how- 
ever, well received ; his father and mother had in vain 
endeavoured to divert him from his resolution ; but though, 
they say his speech was clever, he has damaged himself by 
it. His plan is immediate emancipation. 1 

While such is the state of things here — enormous interests 
under discussion, great disquietude and alarm, no feeling of 
security, no confidence in the Government, and a Parliament 
that inspires fear rather than hope — matters abroad seem to 
be no better managed than they are at home. It is remark- 
able that the business in the East has escaped with so little 
animadversion, for there never was a fairer object of attack. 
While France has been vapouring, and we have been doino- 
nothing at all, Eussia has established her own influence in 
Turkey, and made herself virtually mistress of the Ottoman 

1 [The result proved that Lord Howick was right. The apprenticeship 
system proposed by Lord Stanley was carried, but failed in execution and 
was eventually abandoned.] 

b b 2 



372 REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

Empire. At a time when* our interests required that we 
should be well represented, and powerfully supported, we 
had neither an Ambassador nor a fleet in the Mediterranean; 
and because Lord Ponsonby is Lord Grey's brother-in-law 
he has been able with impunity to dawdle on months after 
months at Naples for his pleasure, and leave affairs at 
Constantinople to be managed or mismanaged by a Charge 
d' Affaires who is altogether incompetent. 

May 19th. — They have found a Secretary for Ireland in 
the person of Littleton, 1 which shows to what shifts they 
are put. He is rich, which is his only qualification, being 
neither very able nor very popular. The West India ques- 
tion is postponed. The Duke of Wellington told me that he 
thought it would pass away for this time, and that all parties 
would be convinced of the impracticability of any of the plans 
now mooted. I said that nothing could do away the mis- 
chief that had been done by broaching it. He thought ' the 
mischief might be avoided ; ' but then these people do nothing 
to avoid any mischief. I was. marvellously struck (we rode 
together through St. James's Park) with the profound re- 
spect with which the Duke was treated, everybody we met 
taking off their hats to him, everybody in the park rising as 
he went by, and every appearance of his inspiring great 
reverence. I like this symptom, and it is the more remark- 
able because it is not popularity, but a much higher feeling 
towards him. He has forfeited his popularity more than 
once ; he has taken a line in politics directly counter to the 



1 [The Rt. Hon. E. J. Littleton, M.P. for Staffordshire, and afterwards 
first Lord Hatherton. 

It was Lord John Russell who advised Lord Grey to make Littleton 
Irish Secretary. He told me so in May 1871, but added, ' L think I made 
a mistake.' The appointment was wholly unsolicited and unexpected by 
Mr. Littleton himself, who happened to be laid up at the time by an 
accident. On the receipt of the letter from Lord Grey offering him the 
Secretaryship of Ireland, and requesting him to take it, Mr. Littleton 
consulted Mr. Fazakerly, who was of opinion that he ought to accept the 
offer. This therefore he did, though not, as I know from his own journals, 
without great diffidence and hesitation j and he intimated to Lord Grey 
that he would only retain his office until some other man could be foimd to 
accept it.] 



1833] EESPECT SHOWN TO WELLINGTON. 873 

popular bias ; but though in moments of excitement he is 
attacked and vilified (and his broken windows, which I wish 
he would mend, still preserve a record of the violence of the 
mob), when the excitement subsides there is always a re- 
turning sentiment of admiration and respect for him, kept 
alive by the recollection of his splendid actions, such as no 
one else ever inspired. Much, too, as I have regretted and 
censured the enormous errors of his political career (at 
times), I believe that this sentiment is in a great degree pro- 
duced by the justice which is done to his political character, 
sometimes mistaken, but always high-minded and patriotic, 
and never mean, false, or selfish. If he has aimed at power, 
and overrated his own capacity for wielding it, it has been 
with the purest intentions and the most conscientious views. 
I believe firmly that no man had ever at heart to a greater 
degree the honour and glory of his country ; and hereafter, 
when justice will be done to his memory, and his character 
and conduct be scanned with impartial eyes, if his capacity 
for government appears unequal to the exigencies of the 
times in which he was placed at the head of affairs, the 
purity of his motives and the noble character of his ambition 
will be amply acknowledged. 

The Duke of Orleans is here, and very well received by 
the Court and the world. He is good-looking, dull, has good 
manners and little conversation, goes everywhere, and dances 
all night. At the ball at Court the Queen waltzed with the 
two Dukes of Orleans and Brunswick. 

Peel compelled old Cobbett to bring on his motion for 
getting him erased from the Privy Council, which Cobbett 
wished to shirk from. He gave him a terrible dressing, and it 
all went off for Peel in the most flattering way. He gains every 
day more authority and influence in the House of Commons. 
It must end in Peel and Stanley, unless everything ends. 

May 27th. — All last week at Epsom, and now, thank Cod, 
these races are over. I have had all the trouble and excite- 
ment and worry, and have neither won nor lost ; nothing but 
the hope of gain would induce me to go through this de- 
moralising drudgery, which I am conscious reduces me to 



374 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

the level of all that is most disreputable and despicable, for 
my thoughts are eternally absorbed by it. Jockeys, trainers, 
and blacklegs are my companions, and it is like dram-drink- 
ing ; having once entered upon it I cannot leave it off, though 
I am disgusted with the occupation all the time. Let no 
man who has no need, who is not in danger of losing all he 
has, and is not obliged to grasp at eveiw chance, make a booh 
on the Derby. While the fever it excites is raging, and the 
odds are varying, I can neither read, nor write, nor occupy my- 
self with anything else. I went to the Oaks on Wednesday, 
where Lord Stanley kept house for the first, and probably (as 
the house is for sale) for the last time. It is a very agreeable 
place, with an odd sort of house built at different times and 
by different people ; but the outside is covered with ivy and 
creepers, which is pretty, and there are two good living- 
rooms in it. Besides this, there is an abundance of grass 
and shade ; it has been for thirty or forty years the resort 
of all our old jockeys, and is now occupied by the sporting 
portion of the Government. We had Lord Grey and his 
daughter, Duke and Duchess of Richmond, Lord and Lady 
Errolj Althorp, Graham, Uxbridge, Charles Grey, Duke of 
Grafton, Lichfield, and Stanley's brothers. It passed off very 
well — racing all the morning, an excellent dinner, and whist 
and blind hookey in the evening. It was curious to see 
Stanley. Who would believe they beheld the orator and 
statesman, only second, if second, to Peel in the House of 
Commons, and on whom the destiny of the country perhaps 
depends ? There he was, as if he had no thoughts but for the 
turf, full of the horses, interest in the lottery, eager, blunt, 
noisy, good-humoured, 6 has meditans nugas et totus in illis ; y 
at night equally devoted to the play, as if his fortune depended 
on it. Thus can a man relax whose existence is devoted to 
great objects and serious thoughts. I had considerable hopes 
of winning the Derby, but was beaten easily, my horse not 
being good. An odd circumstance occurred to me before the 
race. Payne told me in strict confidence that a man who 
could not appear on account of his debts, and who had been 
much connected with turf robberies, came to him, and en- 



1833] ANECDOTE OE THE DERBY. 375 

treated him to take the odds for him to 1,000?. about a horse 
for the Derby, and deposited a note in his hand for the pur- 
pose. He told him half the horses were made safe, and that 
it was arranged this one was to win. After much delay, and 
having got his promise to lay out the money, he told him it 
was my horse. He did back the horse for the man for 700?., 
but the same person told him if my horse could not win Dan- 
gerous would, and he backed the latter likewise for 100?., by 
which his friend was saved, and won 800?. He did not tell 
me his name, nor anything more, except that his object was, 
if he had won, to pay his creditors, and he had authorised 
Payne to retain the money, if he won it, for that purpose. 

We heard, while at the Oaks, that M. Dedel had signed 
the convention between France, England, and Holland, on 
which all the funds rose. The King of Holland's ratification 
was still to be got, and many people will not believe in that 
till they see it. 

June 3rc?. — The Government are in high spirits. The 
Saints have given in their adhesion to Stanley's plan, and 
they expect to carry the West India question. The Bank mea- 
sure has satisfied the directors, and most people, except Peel. 
The Duke of Wellington told me he was very well satisfied, 
but that they had intended to make better terms with the 
Bank, and he thought they should have done so. Melbourne 
says, i Now that we are as much hated as they were, we shall 
stay in for ever.' 

As I came into town (having come by the steamboat from 
Margate very luxuriously) on Saturday I found a final meet- 
ing at the Council Office to dispose of the lunacy case. It 
was so late when Home finished his reply that I thought 
there was no chance of any discussion, and I did not go in ; 
but I met the Master of the Roils afterwards, who told me 
they had delivered their opinions, Lord Eldon cautiously, he 
himself ' broadly,' which I will be bound he did (for he hates 
Brougham), and that, though no judgment had been yet 
given, the Chancellor's decree would be reversed; so that 
after all Brougham's wincing and wriggling to this he has 
been forced to submit at last. 



376 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

London, June 11th. — At a place called Buckhurst all last 
week for the Ascot races ; a party at Lichfield's, racing all the 
morning, then eating and drinking, and play at night. 
I may say, with more trnth than anybod}^ c Yideo meliora 
proboque, deteriora sequor.' The weather was charming, the 
course crowded, the King received decently. His household 
is now so ill managed that his grooms were drunk every 
day, and one man (who was sober) was killed going home 
from the races. Goodwin told me nobody exercised any 
authority, and the consequence was that the household all 
ran riot. 

The first day of the races arrived the news that the Duke 
of Wellington, after making a strong muster, had beaten 
the Government in the House of Lords on the question of 
Portuguese neutrality and Don Miguel, that Lord Grey had 
announced tha/b he considered it a vote of censure, and threw 
out a sort of threat of resigning. He and Brougham (after a 
Cabinet) went down to the King. The King was very much 
annoyed at this fresh dilemma into which the Tories had 
brought him, and consented to whatever Lord Grey required. 
In the meantime the House of Commons flew to arms, and 
Colonel Dawes gave notice of a motion of confidence in 
Ministers upon their foreign policy. This was carried by an 
immense majority after a weak debate, in which some very 
cowardly menaces were thrown out against the Bishops, and 
this settled the question. Ministers did not resign, no Peers 
were made, and everything goes on as before. It has been, 
however, a disastrous business. How the Duke of Welling- 
ton could take this course after the conversation I had with 
him in this room, when he told me he would support the 
Government because he wished it to be strong, I can't con- 
ceive. At all events he seems resolved that his Parlia- 
mentary victories should be as injurious as his military 
ones were glorious to his country. Some of his friends say 
that he was provoked by Lord Grey's supercilious answer to 
him the other day, when he said he knew nothing of what 
was going on but from what he read in the newspapers, 
others that he ' feels so very strongly ' about Portugal, 



1833] TORY BLUNDERS. 377 

others that lie cannot manage the Tories, and that they 
were determined to fight ; in short, that he has not the same 
authority as leader of a party that he had as general of an 
army, for nobody would have forced him to fight the battle 
of Salamanca or Yittoria if he had not fancied it himself. 
The effect, however, has been this : the House of Lords has 
had a rap on the knuckles from the King, their legislative 
functions are practically in abeyance, and his Majesty is 
more tied than ever to his Ministers. The House of Lords 
is paralysed ; it exists upon sufferance, and cannot venture 
to throw out or materially alter any Bill (such as the India, 
Bank, Negro, Church Reform, &c.) which may come up to 
it without the certainty of being instantly swamped, and the 
measures, however obnoxious, crammed down its throat. 
This Government has lost ground in public opinion, they 
were daily falling lower, and these predestinated idiots come 
and bolster them up just when they most want it. Tavis- 
tock acknowledged to me that they were unpopular, and 
that this freak had been of vast service to them; conse- 
quently they are all elated to the greatest degree. The 
Tories are sulky and crestfallen; moderate men are vexed, 
disappointed, grieved ; and the Radicals stand grinning by, 
chuckling at the sight of the Conservatives (at least those 
who so call themselves, and those who must be so really) 
cutting each others' throats. 

On Saturday, the day after I came back, I found a final 
meeting at the Council Office on the lunacy case, the appeal 
of Grosvenor against Drax. There were Lord Lansdowne, 
the Chancellor, Vice -Chancellor, Master of the Rolls, Lord 
Manners, Lord Eldon, and Lord Lyndhurst. The rule is 
that the President of the Council collects the opinions and 
votes, beginning with the junior Privy Councillor. This 
was the Chancellor, 1 who made a sort of apology for his 



1 [This must be a mistake. The Chancellor takes rank in the Privy 
Council after the Lord President and before everyone else. Lord 
Brougham was junior Privy Councillor in mere seniority, but his office gave 
him rank over the others present. His opinion was probably taken first out 
of compliment to him, as he had made the order under review.] 



378 EEiaN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

judgment, stating that he had made the order just after two 
or three very flagrant cases of a similar description had been 
brought under his notice, and then he went into this case, 
and endeavoured to show that there was fraud (and inten- 
tional fraud) on the part of the Grosvenors, and he main- 
tained, without insisting on, and very mildly, his own former 
view of the case. Leach then made a speech strongly 
against the judgment, and Lord Eldon made a longish 
speech, very clear, and very decided against it, interlarded 
with professions of his i sincere ' respect for the person who 
delivered the judgment. The Chancellor did not reply to 
Lord Eldon, but put some questions — some hypothetical, and 
some upon parts of the case itself — which, together with some 
remarks, brought on a discussion between him and Leach, 
in which the latter ended by lashing himself into a rage. 
6 My Lord,' said he to the Chancellor, ' we talk too much, 
and we don't stick to the point.' Brougham put on one of 
his scornful smiles, and in reply to something (I forget what) 
that the Vice-Chancellor said he dropped in his sarcastic 
tone that he would do so and so ' if his Honour would per- 
mit.' For a moment I thought there would be a breeze, but 
it ended without any vote, in the adoption of a form of 
reversal suggested by Lord Eldon, which left it to the option 
of the respondent to institute other proceedings if he should 
think fit. Afterwards all was harmony. Eldon seemed 
tolerably fresh, feeble, but clear and collected. He was in 
spirits about the dinner which had just been given him by 
the Templars, at which he was received with extraordinary 
honours. He said he hoped never to be called to the Council 
Board again, and this was probably the last occasion on 
which he will have to appear in a judicial capacity. It is 
remarkable that his last act should be to reverse a judgment 
of Brougham's, Brougham being Chancellor and himself 
nothing. I could not help looking with something like 
emotion at this extraordinary old man, and reflecting upon 
his long and laborious career, which is terminating gently 
and by almost insensible gradations, in a manner more 
congenial to a philosophic mind than to an ambitious spirit. 



1833] LORD ELDON'S GREAT CAREER. 379 

As a statesman and a politician he has survived and wit- 
nessed the ruin of his party and the subversion of those 
particular institutions to which he tenaciously clung, and 
which his prejudices or his wisdom made him think indis- 
pensable to the existence of the Constitution. As an indi- 
vidual his destiny has been happier, for he has preserved the 
strength of his body and the vigour of his mind far beyond 
the ordinary period allotted to man, he is adorned with 
honours and blessed with wealth sufficient for the aspira- 
tions of pride and avarice, and while the lapse of time has 
silenced the voice of envy, and retirement from office has 
mitigated the rancour of political hostility, his great and 
acknowledged authority as a luminary of the law shines forth 
with purer lustre. He enjoys, perhaps, the most perfect 
reward of his long life of labour and study — a foretaste 
of posthumous honour and fame. He has lived to see his 
name venerated and his decisions received with profound 
respect, and he is departing in peace, with the proud assur- 
ance that he has left to his country a mighty legacy of law 
and secured to himself an imperishable fame. 

June 15th. — The day before yesterday I had occasion to 
see the Duke of Wellington about the business in which we 
are joint trustees, and when we had done I said, c Well, that 
business in the House of Lords turned out ill the other day.' 
* Xo ; do you think so ? ' he said, and then he went into the 
matter. He said that he was compelled to make the motion 
by the answer Lord Grey gave to his question a few nights 
before ; that his party in the House of Lords would not be 
satisfied without dividing — they had been impatient to 
attack the Government, and were not to be restrained ; that 
on the question itself they were right ; that so far from his 
doing harm to the Government, if they availed themselves 
wisely of the defeat they might turn it to account in the 
House of Commons, and so far it was of use to them, as it 
afforded a convincing proof to their supporters that the 
House of Lords might be depended upon for good purposes, 
and they might demand of their supporters in the other 
House that they should enable them to carry good measures, 



380 KEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

and they keep the House of Commons in harmony with the 
House of Lords. He said the Government would make no 
Peers, and that they could not ; that the Tories were by no 
means frightened or disheartened, and meant to take the 
first opportunity of showing fight again ; in short, he seemed 
not dissatisfied with what had already occurred, and resolved 
to pursue the same course. He said the Tories were indig- 
nant at the idea of being compelled to keep quiet, and that 
if they were to be swamped the sooner it was done the 
better, and that they would not give up their right to deal 
with any question they thought fit from any motive of expe- 
diency whatever. 

I don't know what to make of the Duke and his conduct. 
The Catholic question and the Corn Laws and Canning rise 
up before me, and make me doubt whether he is so pure in 
his views and so free from vindictive feelings as I thought 
and hoped he was. When Lords Grey and Brougham went 
down to the King after the defeat, they did not talk of 
Peers, and only proposed the short answer to the Lords, to 
which he consented at once. His Majesty was very indig- 
nant with the Duke, and said it was the second time he had 
got him into a scrape, he had made a fool of him last year, and 
now wanted to do the same thing again. Some pretend that 
all this indignation is simulated ; the man is, I believe, more 
foolish than false. 

June 19th. — The King dined with the Duke at his 
Waterloo dinner yesterday, which does not look as if he had 
been so very angry with him as the Government people say. 
The Duke had his windows mended for the occasion, whether 
in honour of his Majesty or in consequence of H. B.'s cari- 
cature I don't know. 

I had a long conversation with Sir Willoughby Cotton 
on Sunday about Jamaica affairs. He is Commander-in- 
Chief, just come home, and just going out again. He told 
me what he had said to Stanley, which was to this effect : 
that the compensation would be esteemed munificent, greater 
by far than they had expected ; that they had looked for a 
loan of fifteen millions at two per cent, interest, but that the 



1833] IEISH CHUECH BILL. 381 

plan would be impracticable, and that sugar could not be 
cultivated after slavery ceased ; that the slave would never 
understand the system of modified servitude by which he 
was to be nominally free and actually kept to labour, and 
that he would rebel against the magistrate who tried to force 
him to work more fiercely than against his master ; that the 
magistrate would never be able to persuade the slaves in 
their new character of apprentices to work as heretofore, and 
the military who would be called in to assist them could do 
nothing. He asked Stanley if he intended, when the mili- 
tary were called in, that they should fire on or bayonet the 
refractory apprentices. He said no, they were to exhort 
them. He gave him to understand that in his opinion they 
could do nothing, and that the more the soldiers exhorted 
the more the slaves would not work. With regard to my own 
particular case he was rather encouraging than not, thought 
they would not molest me any more, 1 that the Assembly 
might try and get me out, but that the Council considered 
it matter of loyalty to the King not to force out the Clerk of 
his Privy Council, but that if anything more was said about 
it, and I went out to Jamaica, I might be sure of getting 
leave again in a month or six weeks. 

June 26th. — This morning at six saw my mother and 
Henry start for the steamboat which is to take them abroad. 
I wish I was going with them, and was destined once more 
to see Eome and Naples, which I fear will never be. Last 
week was marked by a division in the House of Commons 
which made a great noise. It was on that clause of the 
Irish Church Bill which declared that the surplus should 
be appropriated by Parliament, and Stanley thought fit to 
leave out the clause. The Tories supported him; the 
Radicals and many of the Whigs — Abercromby and C. 
Russell among the number — opposed him. The minority 
was strong- — 148 — but the fury it excited among many of the 

1 [This refers to Mr. Greville's holding the oilice of Secretary of the 
Island of Jamaica with permanent leave of absence. The work of the otlice 
was done by a deputy, who was paid by a share of the emoluments which 
were in the shape of fees.] 



38 2 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

friends of Government is incredible, and the Tories were 
very triumphant without being at all conciliated. The 
Speaker said be should not be surprised to see the Bill 
thrown out by the junction of the Tories and Eadicals on 
the third reading, which is not likely, and the suppression of 
this clause, which after all leaves the matter just as it was, 
will probably carry it through the House of Lords. It is, 
however, very questionable whether they were right in with- 
drawing it, and Tavistock told me that though he thought 
it was right it was ill done, and had given great offence. 
Somehow or other Stanley, with all his talents, makes a mess 
of everything, but this comes of being (what the violent 
Whigs suspect him of being) half a Tory. Measures are 
concocted upon ultra principles in the Cabinet, and then as 
his influence is exerted, and his wishes are obliged to be 
consulted, they are modified and altered, and this gives a 
character of vacillation to the conduct of Government, and 
exhibits a degree of weakness and infirmity of purpose which 
prevents their being strong or popular or respectable. No- 
body, however, can say that they are obstinate, for they are 
eternally giving way to somebody. In the House of Lords 
there was a sharp skirmish between Brougham and Lynd- 
hurst, and high Parliamentary words passed between these 
4 noble friends ' on the Local Courts Bill. The Tories did 
not go down to support Lyndhurst, which provoked him, and 
Brougham was nettled by his and old Eldon's attacks on the 
Bill. 

There is great talk of a letter which the King is said to 
have written to the bishops — that is, to the Archbishop for 
the edification of the episcopal bench. It is hardly credible 
that he and Taylor should have been guilty of this folly, 
after the letter which they wrote to the Peers a year and a 
half ago and the stir that it made. 

I have got from Sir Henry Lushington Monk Lewis's 
journals and his two voyages to the West Indies (one of 
which I read at Naples), with liberty to publish them, which 
I mean to do if I can get money enough for him. He says 
Murrav offered him 500?. for the manuscripts some years 



1833] THE KING WRITES TO THE AECHBISHOP. 383 

ago. I doubt getting so much now, but they are uncom- 
monly amusing, and it is the right moment for publishing 
them now that people are full of interest about the West 
India question. I was very well amused last week at the 
bazaar in Hanover Square, when a sale was held on four 
successive days by the fine ladies for the benefit of the 
foreigners in distress. It was like a masquerade without 
masks, for everybody — men, women, and children — roved 
about where they would, everybody talking to everybody, 
and vast familiarity established between perfect strangers 
under the guise of barter. The Queen's stall was held by 
Ladies Howe and Denbigh, with her three prettiest maids of 
honour, Miss Bagot dressed like a soubrette and looking 
like an angel. They sold all sorts of trash at enormous 
prices, and made, I believe, four or five thousand pounds. I 
went on Monday to hear Lushington speak in the cause of 
Swift and Kelly. He spoke for three hours — an excellent 
speech. I sat by Mr. Swift all the time ; he is not ill- 
looking, but I should think vulgar, and I'm sure impu- 
dent, for the more Lushington abused him the more he 
laughed. 

June 28th, — The King did write to the Archbishop of 
Canterbury a severe reproof to be communicated to the 
bishops for having voted against his Government upon a 
question purely political (the Portuguese), in which the 
interests of the Church were in no way concerned. He sent 
a copy of the letter to Lord Grey, and Brougham told 
Sefton and Wharncliffe the contents, both of whom told me. 
It is remarkable that nothing has been said upon the subject 
in the House of Lords. The Archbishop, the most timid of 
mankind, had the prudence (I am told) to abstain from com- 
municating the letter to the bishops, and held a long con- 
sultation with the Archbishop of York as to the mode of 
dealing with this puzzling document. If he had communi- 
cated it, he would as a Privy Councillor have been respon- 
sible for it, but what answer he made to the King I know 
not. Never was there such a proceeding, so unconstitutional, 
so foolish ; but his Ministers do not seem to mind it, and are 



384 EEIGN OF WILLIAM IV. [Chap. XX. 

rather elated at such a signal proof of his disposition to sup- 
port them. I think, as far as being a discouragement to 
the Tories, and putting an end to their notion that he is 
hankering after them, it may be of use, and it is probably 
true that he does not wish for a change, but on the contrary 
dreads it. He naturally dreads whatever is likely to raise a 
storm about his ears and interrupt his repose. 

Lyndhurst is in such a rage at his defeat in the House 
of Lords on the Local Courts Bill that he swore at first he 
would never come there again. What he said — that ' if they 
had considered it a party question the result would have 
been very different,' which Brougham unaccountably took for 
a threat against the Government — was levelled at his own 
Tory friends for not supporting him. On the third reading 
they mean to have another fight about it. I understand the 
lawyers that the Bill is very objectionable, and calculated to 
degrade the profession. I sat by Talleyrand at dinner the day 
before yesterday, who told me a good deal about Mirabeau, 
but as he had a bad cold, in addition to his usual mode of 
pumping up his words from the bottom est pit of his stomach, 
it was next to impossible to understand him. He said 
Mirabeau was really intimate with three people only — him- 
self, Narbonne, and Lauzun — that Auguste d'Aremberg was 
the negotiator of the Court and medium of its communica- 
tions with Mirabeau ; that he had found (during the pro- 
visional Government) a receipt of Mirabeau's for a million, 
which he had given to Louis XYIII. 



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INDEX 



Actons Modern Cookery 39 | 

A ird's Blackstone Economised 39 

Alpine Club Map of Switzerland 33 

Alpine Guide (The) 33 

A moss Jurisprudence 10 

Primer of the Constitution 10 

Andersons Strength of Materials 20 

Armstrong' s Organic Chemistry 20 

Arnold's (Dr.) Christian Life 29 

Lectures on Modern H istory 2 

Miscellaneous Works 12 

School Sermons 29 

Sermons 29 

(T. ) Manual of English Literature 12 

Amould's Life of Lord Denman 7 

Atherstone Priory 39 

Autumn Holidays of a Country Parson ... 13 

Ayre's Treasury of Bible Knowledge 38 



Bacons Essays, by Whately 10 

Life and Letters, by Spcdding ... 10 

Works 10 

Bain's Mental and Moral Science n 

on the Senses and Intellect n 

Baker's Two Works on Ceylon 32 

Ball's Guide to the Central Alps 38 

Guide to the Western Alps 38 

Guide to the Eastern Alps 38 

Becker's Charicles and Gallus 34 

Black's Treatise on Brewing 39 

Blackley's German- English Dictionary 15 

Blame's Rural Sports 36 

Bloxam's Metals 20 

Boultbee on 39 Articles 28 

Bourne's Catechism of the Steam Engine . 27 

Handbook of Steam Engine 27 

Treatise on the Steam Engine ... 27 

Improvements in the same 27 

Bowdler's Family Shakspeare 35 

Bram ley-Moore's Six Sisters of the Valley . 39 
Brande's Dictionary of Science, Literature, 

and Art 22 

Bray s Manual of Anthropology 22 

Philosophy of Necessity 11 

Britikley's Astronomy 17 

Browne s Exposition of the 39 Articles 28 

Brunei 'j Life of Brunei 7 

Buckle s History of Civilisation 3 

Posthumous Remains 12 

Bull's Hints to Mothers 39 

Maternal Management of Children . 39 

Burgomaster's Family (The) 39 



Burke's Rise of Great Families 8 

Vicissitudes of Families 8 

Busk's Folk-lore of Rome 34 

Valleys of Tirol 32 



Cabinet Lawyer 39 

Campbell's Norway 33 

Cates's Biographical Dictionary 8 

and Woodward's Encyclopaedia ... 5 

Changed Aspects of Unchanged Truths ... 13 

Chesney's Indian Polity 3 

Modern Military Biography 3 

Waterloo Campaign 3 

dough's Lives from Plutarch 4 

Coleuso on Moabite Stone &c 32 

■ — 's Pentateuch and Book of Joshua. 32 

Speaker's Bible Commentary ... 32 

Collins' s Mineralogy of Cornwall 27 

Perspective 26 

Commonplace Philosopher in Town and 

Country, by A. K. H. B 13 

Comte's Positive Polity 8 

Comyu's Elena 34 

Congreve's Essays 9 

Politics of Aristotle 10 

Conington's Translation of Virgil's ^Encid 36 

Miscellaneous Writings 14 

Contanseau s Two French Dictionaries ... 14 
Conybeare and Howson's Life and Epistles 

of St. Paul 29 

Cotton's Memoir and Correspondence 7 

Counsel and Comfort from a City Pulpit... 13 

Cox's (G. W.) Aryan Mythology 4 

Crusades 6 

History of Greece 4 

■ Tale of the Great Persian 

War 4 

Tales of Ancient Greece ... 34 

and Jones's Teutonic Tales 34 

Crawley's Thucydides 4 

Creasy on British Constitution 3 

Cresy's Encyclopaedia of Civil Engineering 27 

Critical Essays of a Country Parson 14 

Crookes's Chemical Analysis 24 

Dyeing and Calico-printing 28 

Culley's Handbook of Telegraphy 26 

Cusack's Student's History of Ireland 3 



D ' Aubignd's Reformation in the Time of 
Calvin 



42 



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Davidson's Introduction to New Testament 31 

Dead Shot (The), by Marksman 37 

De Caisne and Le Maout's Botany 23 

De Morgan s Paradoxes 13 

De Tocqueville s Democracy in America... 9 

Disraeli's Lord George Bentinck 7 

Novels and Tales 35 

Dobson on the Ox 36 

Dove's Law of Storms 18 

Doyle s Fairyland 24 

Drew's Reasons of Faith 29 

Eastlake's Gothic Revival 25 

Hints on Household Taste 26 

Edwards's Rambles among the Dolomites 33 

Elements of Botany 22 

Ellicott' s Commentary on Ephesians 30 

Galatians 30 

Pastoral Epist. 30 

Philippians,&c. 30 

— — — ■ Thessalonians . 30 

Lectures on Life of Christ 29 

Epochs of History 6 

Evans s Ancient Stone Implements 22 

Ewald's History of Israel 30 



Fairbairns Application of Cast and 

Wrought Iron to Building... 28 

Information for Engineers 28 

Treatise on Mills and Millwork 27 

Farrar's Chapters on Language 13 

Families of Speech 13 

Fitzwygram on Horses and Stables 37 

Forsyth's Essays 9 

Fowler's Collieries and Colliers 38 

Francis's Fishing Book 36 

Freeman's Historical Geography of Europe 5 

From January to December 14 

Fronde's English in Ireland 2 

History of England 2 

Short Studies 12 



Gairdner's Houses of Lancaster and York 6 

Gatngee on Horse-Shoeing 36 

Ganot' s Elementary Physics 19 

Natural Philosophy 19 

Gardiner s Buckingham and Charles 3 

Life of Christ 32 

Thirty Years' War 6 

Gilbert and Churchill' s Dolomites 32 

Girdlestone s Bible Synonyms 29 

Goodeve s Mechanics 20 

Mechanism 20 

Grant's Ethics of Aristotle 10 

Graver Thoughts of a Country Parson 14 

Greville s Journal 1 

Griffin's Algebra and Trigonometry 20 

Griffith's Sermons for the Times 29 

Grove on Correlation of Physical Forces ... 18 

Gwilt's Encyclopaedia of Architecture 26 

Hare on Election of Representatives 14 



Harrison's Political Problems 8 

Hartwig's Aerial World 21 

Polar World 21 

Sea and its Living Wonders ... 21 

Subterranean World 21 

Tropical World 21 

Haughton's Animal Mechanics 19 

Hayward's Biographical and Critical Essays 7 

Heer's Switzerland 22 

Helmholtz's Scientific Lectures 18 

Helmsley's Trees, Shrubs, and Herbaceous 

Plants 23 

Herschel's Outlines of Astronomy 17 

Holland's Recollections 7 

Howitt' s Rural Life of England 32 

Visits to Remarkable Places 33 

Humboldt ' s Life 7 

Hume's Essays , 11 

Treatise on Human Nature 11 



1 line ' s History of Rome 5 

Ingelow's Poems 36 



Jameson s Legends of Saints and Martyrs . 25 

Legends of the Madonna 25 

Legends of the Monastic Orders 25 

Legends of the Saviour 25 

Jenkins Electricity and Magnetism 20 

Jerram's Lycidas of Milton 35 

Jerrold's Life of Napoleon 1 

Johnston's Geographical Dictionary 17 



Kalisch's Commentary on the Bible 30 

Keith's Evidence of Prophecy 30 

Kenyon s (Lord) Life 7 

Kerl's Metallurgy, by Crookes and Rohrig. 27 

Kirby and Spence s Entomology 21 

K?iatchbull-Hugessen's Whispers from 

Fairy-Land 34 



Landscapes, Churches, &c. by A. K. H. B. 13 

Lang's Ballads and Lyrics 35 

Latham's English Dictionary 14 

Laughton's Nautical Surveying 18 

Lawlor's Centulle 34 

Lawrence on Rocks 22 

Lecky's History of European Morals 5 

Rationalism 5 

Leaders of Public Opinion 7 

Leisure Hours in Town, by A. K. H. B. ... 13 

Lessons of Middle Age, by A. K. H. B.... 13 

Lewes' s Biographical History of Philosophy 5 

Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicons 15 

Life of Man Symbolised 25 

Lindley and Moore's Treasury of Botany... 23 

Lloyd's Magnetism 20 

Waye-Theory of Light 20 



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43 



Longmans Chess Openings 39 

Edward the Third 3 

Lectures on History of England 3 

Old and New St. Paul's 26 

Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture ... 28 

Gardening 28 

Plants 22 

Lowndes's Engineer's Handbook 27 

Lubbock ' s Origin of Civilisation 22 

Lyra Germanica 25, 31 

Macaulay's (Lord) Essays 2 

History of England ... 2 

Lays of Ancient Rome 25,35 

Miscellaneous Writings 12 

Speeches 12 

Works 2 

McCulloch's Dictionary of Commerce 16 

Macleod's Principles of Economical Philo- 
sophy 10 

Theory and Practice of Banking 38 

Markham ' s History of Persia 4 

Marshall's Physiology 24 

Todas 22 

Marshmari s Historv of India 3 

Life of Havelock 8 

Martineau s Christian Life 31 

Hymns 31 

Maunder s Biographical Treasury 38 

Geographical Treasury 38 

Historical Treasury 38 

Scientific and Literary Treasury 38 

Treasury of Knowledge 38 

Treasury of Natural History ... 38 

Maxwells Theory of Heat 20 

May's History of Democracy 2 

History of England 2 

Melville's Digby Grand 39 

General Bounce 39 

Gladiators 39 

Good for Nothing 39 

Holmby House 39 

Interpreter 39 

Kate Coventry 39 

Queen's Maries 39 

Afendelssohn's Letters 8 

Menzics Forest Trees and Woodland 

Scenery 23 

Merivale s Fall of the Roman Republic ... 4 

Romans under the Empire 4 

Merrifield ' s Arithmetic and Mensuration... 20 

Magnetism 18 

Miles on Horse's Foot and Horse Shoeing 37 

on Horse's Teeth and Stables 37 

Mill (J.) on the Mind 10 

(J. S.) on Liberty 9 

Subjection of Women 9 

on Representative Government 9 

Utilitarianism 9 

's Autobiography 6 

Dissertations and Discussions 9 

Essays on Religion &c 29 

Hamilton's Philosophy 9 

System of Logic 9 

Mill's Political Economy 9 

Unsettled Questions 9 

A filler s Elements of Chemistry 23 

■ ■ Inorganic Chemistry 20 



Minto's (Lord) Life and Letters 6 

Mitchell's Manual of Architecture 25 

Manual of Assaying 28 

Modern Novelist's Library 34 

Monsell's ' Spiritual Songs ' 31 

Moore s Irish Melodies, illustrated 35 

Lalla Rookh, illustrated 35 

Morell's Elements of Psychology n 

Mental Philosophy n 

A /orris's French Revolution 3 

Muller's Chips from a German Workshop. 12 

Science of Language 12 

Science of Religion 5 



New Testament Illustrated with Wood 

Engravings from the Old Masters 24 

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